Anouar Brahem - Khomsa (1995)

Even if you're familiar with Brahem's exquisite mastery of the oud AND his proclivity for mixing it up with the likes of John Surman, Zakir Hussein or Jan Garberek, you'll still be amazed & astonished to hear Khomsa.This cd combines Brahem's oud with accordion, piano, synth, sax, violin, bass & drums for a collection of beautiful compositions Brahem wrote for Tunisian theater & cinema during the '80's & '90's. It's suprising how well the various instrumental combinations work. On Khomsa Brahem is interested in the composition foremost, and often the oud takes a back seat for long stretches of music, which I intially found disconcerting (after all I'd picked up the cd to hear more from my fave oudist)but the music won me over, and now I can't find a duff moment on this disc-start to finish.
Tracklist:

01. Comme un départ
02. L'infini jour
03. Soufle un vent de sable
04. Regard de mouette
05. Sur l'infini bleu
06. Claquent les voiles
07. Vague
08. E la nave va
09. Aïn ghazel
10. Khomsa
11. Seule
12. Nouvelle vague
13. En robe d'olivier
14. Des rayons et des ombres
15. Un sentier d'alliance
16. Comme une absence

Anouar Brahem oud
Richard Gálliano accordion
François Couturier piano, synthesizer
Jean Marc Larché soprano saxophone
Béchir Selmi violin
Palle Danielsson double-bass
Jon Christensen drums

Links:
One
Two

Pass: golimpo

(This is a re-rip, the old axis post on avaxhome was deleted)