Anouar Brahem
Thimar (ECM 1641)

This is a fantastically evocative record, one of those non-traditionalist genre fusion things that purists will immediately dismiss but the layperson will just sit down and dig. Anouar Brahem plays the oud, John Surman plays soprano sax and bass clarient, and Dave Holland is on double bass.

As with most ECM albums, it's spacious and moody, with impeccable playing and brilliant sound. What interests me most about it, though, is its instrumentation, as with a growing number of releases from ECM that really try to forge a new kind of thing in the jazz realm. The oud is not a standard jazz instrument by any means (bend your ears around Hamza El-Din for an idea of how it sounds in a more traditional context), but it totally works, bringing a Middle Eastern flavor to these comparatively structured improvised performances.

If you like Hamza, chances are you will get quite a lot out of this – it is definitely closer to traditional Nubian folk music than you'd expect considering Dave Holland is on here. Nimble, fluid oud lines, solid bass underpinning, and Surman's languid and weeping sax lending a Paul Horn-like quality that is as comfortable as an opium den filled with silk pillows and curvaceous concubines. From song to song, it veers from east to west, jazz to folk, the bazaar to the body shop, the Pyramids to the Poconos (those last couple thrown in purely for effect, of course).

It's definitely a mood music disc, outstanding background music but not merely that, and equally classifiable under "5am" or "9pm." Which is not to say you must listen to it at those times. Think for yourself. What am I, Mesmer?

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Purvis Sage