ANOUAR BRAHEM — Astrakan Café (review)

ANOUAR BRAHEM — Astrakan Café album cover Album · 2000 · World Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
idlero
For his fifth release in nine years on ECM as a leader, Anouar Brahem is joined by Barbaros Erköse on clarinet and Lassad Honsi on bendir, darbouka. 'Astrakan Cafe' continues the musical line of 'Barzakh' and 'Conte...' but the music here is more dynamic and more dramatic, has more oud-appeal. Oriental melodies, airy, mystical, haunting...And yes, this is not jazz(even Anouar Brahem says it...), and no, it doesn't matter, because this music is from another world...the magical world of 1001 nights and Ali-Baba ... Just listen to the whirling(dervish like) clarinet sounds and the hypnotic darbouka in 'Ahkabad'(collective composition), or to Brahem's magical oud on 'Astrakan Cafe' or 'Nihawend Lunga'.No weak tracks on this one. Recorded at St. Gerold monastery in Austria it has the famous ECM sound quality. 'Astrakan Cafe' introduced me into the magic world of Anouar Brahem's music and it was love at first hearing. One of the essential Brahem albums ( together with 'Thimar' and "Le Pas Du Chat Noir' )
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