Amina

Three years ago I reviewed Amerli, by a collection of 20 instrumentalists and singers from Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tibet, all forced by war and conflict to seek asylum in Belgium. The second album to emerge from the project, financed by Muziekpublique, a non-profit organisation based in Brussels that seeks to bring together exiled musicians from different cultures, and features a slimmed-down group of ten musicians, but the material is every bit as diverse. As before, the group is at its best when locating anchor points between their different traditions. ‘Semki Mölem’ finds the Tibetan singer Dolma Renqingi combining a Buddhist mantra with Syrian and Pakistani voices singing a Sufi chant. The suite ‘Qad Hijaz’ marries classical Arabic motifs to a popular song from the Hazara mountain people of central Afghanistan. ‘Punarjanm’ is even bolder, bringing together Syrian, Iraqi, Indian and Pakistani traditions as sarod, ney, qanun and oud combine magically. The title-track, written and sung by Afghan Mohammed Aman Yusufi, tells of both the pain of exile in leaving loved ones behind and the consolation of finding hope and empathy with other musicians in a similar plight. All proceeds go to refugee charities.