The Tunisian ud player Anouar Brahem takes a different route on The Astounding Eyes Of Rita than on his previous two ECM albums Le Voyage De Sahar and Le Pas Du Chat Noir. While on the latter albums a kind of light and clear chamber music variant of world fusion could be heard, Brahem's latest CD is more about dark sounds and a rhythmic pulse. The low heavy sounds come from the lower range of the
… ud, from Klaus Gesing's bass clarinet and from Björn Meyer's bass guitar (known from Nik Bärtsch's 'zen-funk' band Ronin). It was ECM producer Manfred Eicher who paired Brahem with these musicians, while Brahem himself added Lebanese percussionist Khaled Yassine to the company. Together they produce a dark, but warm sounding and dancing world fusion. The album's title comes from a poem by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), to whom it is dedicated. (HB)more
