Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: World Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 27-AUG-2002

Track Listing

1. Le Pas Du Chat Noir
2. De Tout Ton Coeur
3. Leila Au Pays Du Carrousel
4. Pique-nique A Nagpur
5. C'est Ailleurs
6. Toi Qui Sait
7. L'arbre Qui Voit
8. Un Point Bleu
9. Les Ailes Du Bourak
10. Rue Du Depart
11. Leila Au Pays Du Carrousel, Var.
12. Deja La Nuit

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8194 in Music
• Brand: BRAHEM,ANOUAR
• Released on: 2002-08-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Amazon.com
The Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem has chosen to work in a trio setting this time out, accompanied by Francois Couturier on piano and Jean-Louis Matinier on accordion. Brahem states in the liner notes that these pieces were actually composed on the piano, emerging while he was taking a much-needed short break from his primary instrument. While Pas de Chat Noir ("The Black Cat's Footsteps") is a change of pace, it is a not a terribly remote detour. Brahem is still in his favorite space, exploring the power of implication, and the other players are in synch with his vision. All three participants sound muted, relating to one another in parallels rather than in a heated dialogue. The result is a spacious, romantic pastiche of Farid El-Atrache, Astor Piazzolla, Keith Jarrett, 19th- and 20th-century French impressionists (especially Eric Satie), plus shades of every strung-out, enervated, after-hours nightclub jam that ever was. --Christina Roden

Customer Reviews

Anouar Brahem's Mastery Continues
Anouar Brahem again ushers listeners into a sublime world that evidences a subdued, covert, but undeniable intensity of feeling and beauty. Forget all the allusions you may read here and elsewhere to other musics and eras, as so many fall into the comparison trap. Do not compare this work with French art music, Astor Piazzola, a pepperoni pizza, or anything else: accept and embrace this music on its own significant terms, and you will be abundantly rewarded. It stands entirely on its own!

Anouar Brahem's melodies are beyond poignant, he elicits astoundingly empathetic contributions from his two colleagues on piano and accordion, respectively, and his own playing is always in the service of his overall conception. I repeat, do not let others demean this great work by insinuating it is relaxing, or good for meditation, or otherwise exists as musical wallpaper. As a famous classical pianist once remarked when asked what was harder to play, the fast pieces or the slow ones, he said (and I am paraphrasing) the fast tempos are easy; it is the slow ones that cause me difficulty. Miles Davis said much the same thing about ballads-he felt them so deeply that he could no longer play them. Thanks to ECM for giving Anouar Brahem a global audience, and to the man himself for incomparable music. I can't wait for his next project............

Another Brilliant Work from Anouar Brahem
Anouar Brahem is a great artist. He manages to sound modern and archaic at the same time. His most recent previous album, Astrakan Cafe, evokes a North Africa, with his oud accompanied by clarinet and percussion. My favorite of his previous albums, Compte de l'Incroyable Amour, is a work of great spirituality and heart.

This album, Le Pas Du Chat Noir, with accompaniment from a piano and clarinet, sounds like sophisticated Parisian parlor art song, but of what era? Debussy's? Piaf's? Ravel's? Brahem's!

Typically perfect ECM audio engineering allows the listener to fall deeply into this music's thrall. Highly recommended.

An amazing mix of styles
Oudist Brahem branches out to embrace a mellow form of Parisian street music, improvising along with pianist Francois Couturier and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier. Although the trio often echoes the Argentine tangos of Astor Piazolla, they shy away from the forceful grandeur of the style, mining a mellower, slightly Shadowfax-y, New Age-ish sound. Muted strains of Arabic classical, Argentine tango and Parisian musette mix with equal ease, and while the overall sound may be a bit goopy, it's also quite engaging. Relaxing, amorphous music with considerable richness and depth.