Acamar

This is a relaxed, drifting set of Arabic-European instrumental compositions and improvisations from a band based in the Netherlands. The Madar Ensemble began as a collaboration between Palestinian oud player Nizar Rohana and Dutch bassist Tony Overwater (who featured on Kayhan Kalhor's Top of the World album in #150). They were later joined by Dutch clarinettist Maarten Ornstein, Jordanian percussion Nasser Salameh and Tunisian Jasser Haj Youssef on viola d'amore (the stringed instrument popular back in the 17th and 18th centuries). Four members of the band were involved in writing the compositions, and the best are the two by Rohana – the opening ‘Madar Bayati’, with its interplay between oud and viola, or the brooding and atmospheric title-track, which is dominated by clarinet and bass.

Elsewhere, there's one successful collaboration piece, ‘Furud’, which includes a sturdy oud solo, and several less interesting tracks dominated by the instrument of the particular composer. So ‘Sofia’ is based around the clarinet, ‘Silence’ features viola and ‘Gemini’ is an improvised bass solo. The album is apparently inspired by ancient civilisations that relied on an understanding of the cosmos – madar is Arabic for ‘orbit’. The album's best sections would work well as atmospheric film music.