This album is both an extension of the oud tradition but it also deviates from it in a daring way. Despite his impressive knowledge of maqamat, an extremely rich system of modes in which Arabic music is rooted, Brahem rarely bases his improvisations directly on the maqam. His phrasing is pure and spare, expressing itself almost as much through silence as through sound... Composed of lines that flow with elegance and dark silences of breathing, the music twirls with the harmonics of the piano... several melodies are based on arpeggiated chords, repeated in the childish manner of Satie. Although simple, they nevertheless contain captivating arabesques. The three musicians rarely appear together, and of the album's 12 tracks, only seven are played as a trio. Most of the time these are duets that we hear piano and oud, oud and accordion, accordion and oud. Often the musicians repeat each other's lines, but rarely in unison, thus accentuating the intimate character of the music while producing a floating, echoing effect. If ensembles always project “the image of a community” as critic Greil Marcus has suggested, then Mr Brahem’s trio – part takht, part jazz trio, part chamber ensemble – evokes a kind of Andalusia of the 21st century, in which European and Arab sensibilities have merged so profoundly that the borders that separated them have completely dissolved. The image may seem utopian, but its beauty is undeniable.

In the ascetic nomadism of the Tunisian oudist Anouar Brahem, we can detect a cousinship with Ravel and Debussy, recognize the scent of tango, hear the echoes of a music box. Should we therefore speak of world music in this regard? He prefers to be associated with contemporary music but we could affiliate him with jazz. “Silent singing”, is written in the booklet about his unclassifiable instrumental music, here judiciously enhanced by the piano of François Couturier and the accordion of Jean-Louis Matinier. The formula is just right to express the meditative atmospheres, the introspective dimension, the hushed elegances of this album, the seventh that he recorded on the demanding Munich label ECM. With, as in the great Arab-Persian tradition, the silence which comes between the notes to express the desire for an escape, the quest for somewhere else.

It is difficult to compartmentalize Anouar Brahem's artistic creation into a single style, at the same time Jazz, oriental tradition, or new age, as he is caught between respect for traditions and desire to innovate. He was able to make this instrument initially intended to accompany traditional songs into a solo instrument. His records, the fruit of meetings and travels, provoked by an inexhaustible curiosity, have received rem

Anouar Brahem's penultimate opus "Thimar", recorded with double bassist Dave Holland and saxophonist John Surman, was a pure masterpiece. This convergence of suspensions and feline glissandos has become a cult record in some three years. For his latest record, Astrakan café, he finds more classic colors. So many tense, fleshy vibrations which have often been familiar to the angels.

After his splendid “Thimar” with John Surman and Dave Holland, the Oud magician continues to explore the trio formula. The infinite musicality that he implements with his compatriot Lassaad Hosni and the Turkish clarinetist Barbaros Erköse reminds us how derisory labels are. Instrumental mastery of each speaker, intense mutual listening, superb compositions, richness of atmospheres, bias towards sobriety and interiority, everything converges towards a magnificence devoid of pomp, an existential poetry.

It is an intoxicating pleasure to listen to this unusual progression... An admirable sense of melody breathes through the pages of the record. The unprecedented trio discovered the philosophical stone, the elixir of life of ethereal and poetic music, where we still recognize the original traditions but where the borders have opened to a now spatial beauty.

Caliph El-Ouathek had wisely said of Al Mawsili, the master of Arabic vocal art: "I have the impression every time he sings that my kingdom is growing." To hear Anouar Brahem play, I can say that the kingdom of music is expanding [...] Prophetic music: when the Tunisian Anouar Brahem plays the oud, the musical cultures of the East and the West are reconciled[ ...] He is so calm and sovereign that it seems that the man from Tunisia, remaining lying on his couch, has gone much further than many jazz musicians, busy in the quest for new music.

Anouar Brahem's music has today reached an astonishing degree of maturity... With sovereign calm, subtle power, Anouar Brahem's melodies have already crossed paths with ECM six times with musicians as diverse as Galliano or Garbarek... With Thimar the magician of Oud offers us a new stimulating encounter with John Surman and Dave Holland. Magical climates result from this exchange... Each of the eleven tracks on this disc can be listened to as if we were looking at a miniature: they tell us so many stories and secrets, without ever tiring... A mar