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Great for the times when I need to unwind from work, hang out before dinner with my beloved, and so one.Get your copy today. I listen to this over and over again. It has awesome moody modal world improvisationally inspired pieces throughout the album.
Highly recommend as a 'must-have' in any collection. I originally bought this CD for my partner as the one he had had developed track grooves from overplaying. But now, I listen to it more than him - when I simply need to wind down, calm myself, transport myself, and especially at bed time when sleep doesn't always come easily.
It's relaxing and enervating and soothes the soul. I now own three CDs and his music is evocative of other wondrous places far away from North America. I was introduced to the artist by a friend living in Santa Monica. I walked in her living room and heard the music and instantly had to know who it was (I had not heard of him).
Highly recommended. "One of the ironies of the current vogue for so-called world musics is that the adventurous listener often finds himself championing forms exotic to his ear which are, in their true context, fundamentally conservative." (-- Steve Lake in the original liner notes)While I don't know my oud music well enough to know if this is astonishing or breathtaking, it is a very pleasant listen -- meditative or sensuous depending on the listener's mood. The pieces are mostly short and well-composed, and the recording upholds ECM's reputation for clarity and simplicity -- oud, violin and goblet drums, without any post-production to speak of.It's certainly a virtuoso performance to my ears.Like the complex and beautiful calligraphy that adorns the cover, Barzakh is refined and virtuosic, yet intricate enough to really focus the listener.
Lute and Guitar players alike stand to learn a lot from Brahem. I highly recommend ANYTHING by him, but I prefer this album, with "Le conte de l'incroyable amour" in second place.If you are a fan of ethnic music or of string instruments in general, you would do well to check this out. Anouar Brahem and his Oud continue to make wonderfully emotive music of great depth. At times pensive and melancholy, at others upbeat, he achieves something in music that is ineffable and all too rare.
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