Amrak Seedna & Abtal Wa Harameyah

Ziad Rahbani is the son of Lebanese icon Fairuz and famed composer Assi Rahbani and a living legend in Lebanon, where he became a cult hero in the 80s with a soundtrack album that mixed Arabic music with funk, boogie and jazz fusion to fabulous, dizzying effect. This is that album, recorded in 1987 at By-Pass Studio in Beirut, where Rahbani – a playwright and activist as well as a pianist, multi-instrumentalist and producer – worked on tracks including the disco-tastic 12” ‘Abu Ali’ and projects led by his mother. Previously only ever released in Lebanon, then in the middle of a fraught civil war, crate diggers, DJs and the excellent WeWantSounds label are to thank for the reissue of the album originally conceived as a soundtrack to two stage plays by Antoine Kerbaj, whose respective narratives’ content and pace are hinted at via a combination of instrumentals, interludes and guest-sung songs with catchy melodies, jazzy flair and oh-so-funky modern arrangements. Variations on Monty Norman’s original ‘James Bond Theme’ pepper the latter soundtrack; Rahbani plays Fender Rhodes and flute across the lovely ‘Masshad Al Hob’, whose recurring melody is reworked on ‘Slow’; oud and percussion add traditional welly to arrangements on ‘Hake Ad Ma Baddak Fee’. Thoughtful liner notes by Mario Choueiry from Institute du Monde Arab in Paris reinforce and celebrate the agency of Ziad Rahbani’s Amrak Seedna & Abtal Wa Harameyah.