A Time Between Birth and Chaos

On stage, he sits with a qanun, the Middle Eastern zither, on his lap and a table crammed with electronic devices in front of him. Symo Reyn may have been born in Jordan, but since moving to Paris to study composition and film music, he has decided to use this glorious ancient instrument to create new and unexpected sounds.

He says that his influences include anyone from Henry Purcell to Michael Nyman, Brian Eno and Björk, but this album of five instrumental pieces sounds like a clash between Middle Eastern styles and electronica, with a dash of jazz and psychedelia added in. At its best, this is atmospheric, sometimes disquieting music ideal for a sci-fi movie. On ‘Dreams, Yellow and Black Garden’ the melody is matched against rumbling and insistent use of a phrase that sounds like a mixture of sawing and heavy breathing, while the lengthy title-track uses bass and rhythmic patterns, with dub effects added in, to create the same edgy mood as it builds towards a frantic workout.