CD ECM Records Anouar Brahem: The Astounding Eyes Of Rita

Anouar Brahem - oud
Klaus Gesing - bas clarinet
Bjorn Meyer - bas electric
Khaled Yassine - darbouka, bendir

Delightful new project, assembled by Tunisian oud master Brahem with producer Manfred Eicher. Combination of bass clarinet with oud suggests a link to Anouar’s “Thimar” trio, but this East/West line-up often feels closer to the more traditionally-inclined sounds of “Barzakh” or “Conte de l’Incroyable Amour”.

Klaus Gesing, from Norma Winstone’s Trio, and Björn Meyer, from Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, are both players with an affinity for musical sources beyond jazz, and they interact persuasively inside Brahem’s music. A dance of dark, warm sounds, urged onward by the darbouka and frame drum of Lebanaese percussionist Khaled Yassine. The album is dedicated to the memory of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

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Songlines, Top of the world
Stereoplay, Jazz-CD des Monats

The continuity with previous Brahem work is the lightness of touch with which the pieces are executed, the largely Middle Eastern modal structures being a basis for spare, condensed improvisations, and the charm of much of the music comes from the extremely careful placement of the solo flourish.
Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise

Brahem’s improvisational prowess has always been in service of the music; here, his ability to blur the line between form and freedom has reached a new level, egged on, undoubtedly, by his band mates’ equal abilities. The music is, by design, about strong melodies and open-mindedness when it comes to expanding on Brahem’s core ideas. Gesing, in particular, is a strong foil for Brahem, matching the oudist’s ability to evoke with the slightest of bends, the subtlest of glissandi.
John Kelman, All About Jazz

Albums as perfect as this appear rarely. Tunisian oud maestro Brahem has been one of ECM’s most-revered artists for years, pioneering a superior kind of east-west fusion. But this quartet recording beats anything I’ve heard from him yet. Dedicated to the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, the album’s eight originals trace a continuous arabesque, wind and strings intertwining against a trance-like rhythmic pulse.
Phil Johnson, The Independent

Although Brahem’s music is grounded in the traditions that have grown up around the oud over centuries…, his hybridization of those traditions with the ways of European and American jazz have made his extremely individual canon pointedly modern, and very much an example of a genuine world music. Brahem and Gesing’s beguiling interplay – a mystical poetry… – could not exist without rhythmic drive, supplied here… by Swedish bassist Björn Meyer and Lebanes percussionist Khaled Yassine. … Both he and Meyer drive the lead instrumentalists while also gathering a powerful energy between themselves. Throughout these eight tracks, it’s clear that not only do the clarinet and oud belong together, but the ideas that flow from both players mesh into an emotional and intellectual whole as they thrust and parry in turn, bending toward and away from each other.
Robert Baird, Stereophile