Five Seasons

Best known for his work with the Turkish psych-influenced Şatellites, Itamar Klüger is a multi-instrumentalist with a key role in the Tel Aviv music scene. Eje Eje is his new solo project, in which he expands his range to take in styles from across the Middle East and beyond – anything from Persian wedding music to Egyptian rhythms, funk and dub. As with many bands on Batov Records, bass and drums play a key role, providing a solid, rhythmic platform over which he can add keys or electric bağlama. The album is a largely instrumental concept work, based around the Chinese idea of five seasons (the end of summer is apparently a season of its own) and the best tracks are both atmospheric and impressively varied. So ‘That Rainy Dawn (Winter)’ matches North African themes against a slinky, driving bass line; the semi-acoustic ‘Wedding at the Vineyard (Spring)’ sounds like a folk dance tune and ‘Black Sea Majic (Autumn)’ evokes ‘a bustling market in a small town by the shores of the Black Sea’ by matching bağlama against a synth tuned to sound like the Armenian duduk (though far less haunting than the real thing). An entertaining, colourful set.