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Now playing…
Anouar Brahem - Souvenance: Music for Oud, Quartet and String Orchestra
Anouar Brahem (Oud), François Couturier (Piano), Klaus Gesing (Bass Clarinet), Björn Meyer (Bass) and Pietro Mianiti (Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana).
Streaming on Qobuz (96/24)… continuing on this morning with one of my favorite albums from Anouar. Such beautiful music from this quartet and the the stings lead by Pietro Mianiti. The product description from ECM, “The music of Souvenance, by turns graceful, hypnotic, and taut and starkly dramatic, was recorded in 2014 six years after oud-master Anouar Brahem s last ECM album, The Astounding Eyes of Rita. It took a long time to write this music, he acknowledges, noting that his emotional world had been usurped by the unfolding story of political upheaval sweeping first through Tunisia then through the neighboring countries. Extraordinary waves of change, accompanied by great hopes and fears. I don t claim a direct link between my compositions and the events taking place in Tunisia, says Anouar, but I have been deeply affected by them. New directions for the music find Fran ois Couturier returning to the Brahem group, frequently supported by subtle string orchestration. The strings have a glowing transparency and fragility in these pieces, often providing shimmering texture against which the contributions of the quartet members and, above all, Anouar Brahem s unique oud-playing stand out in bold relief.”
It is worth the time to go through all of Anouar’s catalogue and this album for me is an hour and a half of pure pleasure!
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I bought this album on cassette on release back in 1989 then later on CD. I’ve always had a soft spot for it and IMO was one of the high spots in Lou Reed’s incredible musical journey. It’s aged really well and with this new remastered box set it sounds absolutely fabulous.
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Now playing…
Avishai Cohen - Big Vicious
Avishai Cohen (Trumpet, Effects, Synthesizer), Uzi Ramirez (Guitar), Yonatan Albalak (Bass Guitar), Aviv Cohen (Drums) and Ziv Ravitz (Drums, Live Sampling).
Streaming on Qobus (88.2/24)… continuing on this morning with Avishai’s fabulous ‘Big Vicious’ album and this quintet is sounding so very sweet!
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Listening to Rarities 3, Back Rose and Chinatown era demos mostly. Sounds great, not a million miles from the album versions but with much more immediacy.
It’s great to have some “new” Lizzy to listen to. It’s a pity the box set doesn’t have more information about the tracks and their recordings.
.sjb
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Time for some Blues after doing legal stuff for my last employer this morning. Missing the team a lot, Union disputes no so much!
Muddy Waters at Newport 1960. Speaker Corners reissue LP.
Awesome blues from Waters. I don’t know how the SC reissue compares to the original and other issues, but the 1960 sound is addictive.
Claude
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