Zabad, Twilight Tide

I'm used to the word sebil in Turkish meaning ‘Fountain’, but in Arabic it means also ‘Road’ or ‘Way’: both describe well the evocative music of this duo on their third album. The original members of Sabîl, oud (lute) player Ahmad Al Khatib and percussionist Youssef Hbeisch, are Palestinian musicians living in Europe, and they are here variously augmented by Elie Khoury on buzuq (a Lebanese/Syrian popular lute related to the Turkish saz and Greek bouzouki) and Hubert Dupont on double bass. The combination of instruments is felicitous as, in my opinion, any project with oud and tempered piano is intrinsically doomed, while percussion instruments are the oud's natural foil and double bass rounds out the sound for the Western ear without compromising the delicate Eastern tuning.

The album thus respects the classical maqam tradition while innovating through the intimate dialogue between the different instrumentalists who listen intently and let the music breathe in ample spaces. Pieces in various maqam modes, meditative preludes and joyous dances, classically structured pieces and open-form improvisations add rich variety to the album. Multilingual liner notes and a crystal clear detailed sound complete this excellent production.