Beyond Destruction

This album has an impressive cast list. To name but three: Iraqi vocalist, and composer Aida Nadeem, Tunisian oud player and electronics wizard Smadj and Norwegian jazz guitarist and producer Joakim Frøystein. They’ve received an impressive amount of radio play across Europe, but somehow or other the whole project doesn’t quite gel. The highly skilled production seamlessly mixes organic instruments with electronic effects, programming and ingenious laptop wrangling to create a 21st-century pan-Arabic orchestra. Nadeem’s vocals, on the other hand, don’t seem to punch their weight in the middle of all that musical action. Her passionate vocals are overwhelmed within the powerful density of the mix. Her voice isn’t allowed to flower, its resonance often depleted by excessive compression and delay, which diminishes its mid-range. That said, on the more stripped-down track ‘Iraqi Folk’, the whole production fires on all cylinders and there’s thrilling playing on the djoze (an ancient Arabic bowed instrument similar to a viola da gamba) by Iraqi virtuoso Bassem Hawar, as the group give new musical life to a traditional Iraqi song. Nadeem’s vision is compelling, but maybe she needs to make her voice the centre of her next album.

For non-Arabic speakers, translations would be very welcome, particularly of the words of the stunning late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, which graces ‘Raheel’.