COMPOSERS: Anouar Brahem
LABELS: ECM
PERFORMER: Anouar Brahem (oud), François Couturier (p), Jean-Louis Matinier (acc)
CATALOGUE NO: 016 373-2
Anouar Brahem is a Tunisian composer who plays a Syrian oud, a stringed instrument related to the lute. He came to notice when, in 1997, he recorded the album Thimar with John Surman and Dave Holland for ECM.
The dangers of improvisation so upset him that for this present album he composed all the music, but asked François Couturier and Jean-Louis Matinier to play the pieces as if they were improvised. This music has great charm and often an exquisite kind of melancholy. Oddly enough, it frequently sounds improvised thanks to its wealth of subtle feeling.