Revelation

One of the less comfortable truths for fans of Middle Eastern music in the West is that most CDs released here are made by expatriate Arab musicians living in Europe; little of their music will ever get heard back in Cairo or Amman. However, The Khoury Project is one of the few groups that could bridge this divide. Revelation is the perfect album for the upwardly mobile, contemporary Arab world: artful enough to appeal to Westernised hipsters, close enough to easy-listening to win over the less adventurous with a light wash of sophisticated jazzy-flamenco.

It's clear from the outset that the Khoury brothers can really play: there is absolutely no doubting the dexterity and musical ingenuity of Basil on violin, Osama on qanun and Elia on oud. This brings brilliance and polish to the nine instrumental tracks, though sometimes it would be nice for the music to breathe a little and show a little more of its human soul.