[...] L’album s’enroule autour du talent poétique du luth d’Anouar Brahem. On le suit délicieusement à travers le subtil ordonnance­ment de la mélodie, les silences du phrasé musical, à travers tous ces non-dit qui nous entraî­nent dans des chemins orien­taux, dans une poésie de lumière et de battements délicats [...]

Diablement séduisant [...] Ce vir­tuose réussit à transmettre dans son oeuvre ce quelque chose d'originel qui som­meille en tout un chacun [...] Il envoûte tout sim­plement.

[...] ECM, venu du jazz expé­rimen­tal, explore aujourd'hui des espaces ba­roques, contemporains ou mondiaux. Il a longtemps fait figure de pionnier [...] Des noms : Arvo Part, Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett etc. [...] les alchimistes d'ECM créent de l'or, comme ce Conte de l'incroyable Amour d'A. Brahem.

[...] Anouar Brahem: a ge­nius, a soul, an improviser who possesses all the rich­ness of expression from not only the Orient but from the western world as well [...] Anouar Brahem’s music is spontaneous and as captivat­ing as a Bach cantata [...] this great musician can be com­pared to John McLaughlin and Glenn Gould [...] "Epochal"

[...] Dramatic intensity, the technique, as brilliant as it is, is nothing compared to the music [...] that a piece de­mands a great virtuosity, is al­ready the occasion for Anouar Brahem to create an extraordinary music [...] he pulls from his instrument cristalline notes as though he has succeeded in captu­ring, through the vibrant air of an extremely hot day, all of the moving particles of sand and dust coming from the great­ness.

[...] Anouar Brahem, through his high mastering of the techniques of playing the lute, has succeeded in con­quering a charmed public [...] this distin­guishes him from all of his colleagues playing the modern lute [...]

Soft and contemplative yet efferves­cent, this unusual recording of oud player Brahem is a true “tale of in­credible love.” Each tune exudes a warm, magnetic quality, drawing you into a soothing trance. Brahem re­defines World Music for so­phisticates.

Brahem’s key to infinity is the simple way in which he crafts his melody on the oud. In the title piece, Brahem’s four-note melody blends the mathe­matical severity of Gregorian chant with the hypnotic simplicity of new age music while leaving cliches in the dust.

“Conte de l’incroyable amour” is a strange and haunting release by the Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem. This is no exotic bit of world music. It is rather a genuinely original mix of North African and Arab flavors that will please many different tastes.