Awda

The oud player Adel Salameh has been carving out a name for himself around the world since he left his native Palestine 20 years ago. While early albums did little to reflect the warmth of his playing, Awda is a delightful testament to his musicianship. Like many musicians from the Arab world, Salameh is exploring the possibilities of combining Eastern and Western musical ideas and is joined by guitarist Philippe Roche and cello player Valerie Dulac. Beyond their obvious similarities, the guitar and oud sit quite far apart – one using frets to play well-tuned chords, the other designed for single lines and the nuances of quarter-tone scales. Collaborations between them can tend to be bland compromises but the pairing works well here. The compositions were inspired by Salameh’s journey to his hometown of Tulkarim in the West Bank two years ago, though there is little in the music that immediately tells you this. It is more about revisiting captured images from his youth and an impressionist atmosphere pervades throughout. The style of the pieces is often intangible: there are echoes of medieval chant, a fleeting line from a French chanson or the ghost of a Django lick. Amidst all this, Salameh sounds more assured than ever before – surely one of the most inventive oud players to be heard today.