Kifak Inta

The retro-specialist Parisian label Wewantsounds continues its vinyl-only series of releases by Fairuz, the eminent Lebanese singer. This time it's Kifak Inta, first released in 1991 on CD and cassette, but featuring cuts recorded in the late 1980s. Once again, her son Ziad Rahbani is the producer and arranger. An immediate melancholy pervades on ‘Farewell Song’, in a sparse arrangement with rich strings sweeping in to make emphatic punctuations. Fairuz leads a call-and-response vocal, and when the orchestration becomes crowded, it has the aura of a 1960s French movie score. Rahbani's arrangements are highly dramatic, framing Fairuz's ascending voice, the large ensemble carefully balanced in the mix.

The instrumental ‘Ouverture 87’ hints at the recording year, almost sounding like a TV cop show theme, and the lengthy ‘Ya Leili Leili Leili’ might actually be a live recording, though the crowd responses sound oddly tacked-on. It benefits from a funky bassline and horn-stabs, with prominent backing vocals. This strong opening run is followed by the curiosity of ‘Prova’, which exposes Fairuz overdubbing her vocals, with studio backchat and tape-spooling included. This is followed by a trio of unremarkable ballads, before returning to the full spread of ‘Indi Thika Fik’. The closing ‘It's Not a Problem’ is a fine way to conclude, with nearly seven minutes of a more ambitious song, this time with male chorus, along with some elaborate qanun flourishes. A mixed LP indeed…