Great Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem follows up his international bestseller 'Le pas du chat noir' with another mesmerising album of beautiful, evocative music performed by his unique trio with French pianist Franois Couturier and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier. It's similarly full of magic and mystery. "Echoes of Satie, Paris cafes, flamenco and Balkan music infuse the melodies. Brahem shifts time signatures and pulls away from dark Arab modes to weave melodies that are at once familiar and elusively exotic," said Acoustic Guitar magazine of 'Le pas du chat noir'. Anouar Brahem's 2002 album was one of the big hits of recent ECM history, outselling even some Keith Jarrett discs. This special group with its unique instrumentation - oud, piano and accordion - charmed audiences all over the world. Admirers were mesmerised by the album's gently-swaying insistence and the way it seemed to find points of contact with other music. Still rooted in Arab modes, it nonetheless hinted at affinities with Debussy, Satie, Gurdjieff, Arvo Prt and more... 'Le Voyage de Sahar' goes further, with a more evolved improvisational component. In playing this work live, Brahem, Couturier and Matinier have opened up the music while keeping its mystery and magic intact. In addition to Brahem's beautiful, evocative new music, the CD revisits key pieces from 'Khomsa' and 'Astrakan Cafe', which are transfigured and transformed by this unique trio. Recorded 2005 Personnel: Anouar Brahem - (oud), Franois Couturier - (piano), Jean-Louis Matinier - (accordion) . Over the past fifteen years, the Tunisian oud-master Anouar Brahem has made a number of wide-ranging, culture-bridging and richly rewarding albums for ECM, including two (very different) collaborations with saxophonists Jan Garbarek and John Surman. The spare, gently unfolding and intensely atmospheric melodies and moods of the rhythmically seductive Le Voyage De Sahar develop further that subtle confluence of Arabic modes and European harmony which was evident on Brahems previous meeting (on the critically praised 2002 release Le Pas Du Chat Noir) with French accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier and his compatriot, pianist Francois Couturier. The trio have developed their coolly conceived, yet passionate three-way improvisation to a high art, interpreting the limpid melodies, unhurried rhythms and dappled textures of this multi-sourced, freshly conceived chamber music with playing of the highest (yet unforced) order. With its suite-like sequence of numbers, rich in reverie, and subtly evocative cover art, this enchanting hour or so of music comes over as a film-like invitation to voyage, conjured by a poetic vision part North African, part central European, and where the spirit of Debussy and Satie can at times appear to walk hand in hand with that of the flamenco masters of old. Listen with open ears - and dream well! -- Michael Tucker Review (4 stars) Probably Brahem's finest album to date...there are so many glorious moments...wonderfully evocative music. -- Jazzwise, (Duncan Heining), March, 2006 (5 stars) An evocative musical journey...the work of a master musician at the peak of his creativity. -- Manchester Evening News, (Tim Stenhouse), May 26, 2006
