Reissue of Anouar Brahem’s 1995 album “Khomsa” featuring Richard Galliano, Jean Marc Larché and Bechir Selmi, alongside ECM mainstays Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen.

Brahem is recognised as a masterly interpreter of the Tunisian and pan-Islamic music traditions and as an exceptional improviser, able to build on those traditions. Inside his home country, however, Anouar also has a long history of working with film and theatre, and “Khomsa” revisits and quite freely reworks material he had written over the preceding decade for these contexts. “These pieces”, he notes, “have remained within me as the image of a collection of sensations quick to vibrate.” They emphasise Brahem’s compositional skills as much as his soloistic abilities.

The musicians brought together on Khomsa - the album’s dramaturgy calls for continually shifting permutations of the personnel - include three players Brahem has often worked with over the years (Selmi, Couturier and Larché) and three whom he encountered here for the first time (Galliano, Danielsson and Christensen).

Brahem continues to reveal new aspects of his oud playing on Khomsa. If “Claquent les voiles”, a duet with Danielsson, intensifies the Andalusian strain hinted at on the Barzakh album, “En robe d’olivier” suggests West African colours, the oud taking on some of the bright, percussive quality of the kalimba. In these pieces, as on his subtle, extended solo on “L’infini jour”, Brahem - who is often praised for his virtuosity - shows his ability to transcend mere “technique” to get to the essence, the heart, of the music.

Tracks:
1. Comme un départ
2. L’infini jour
3. Souffle un vent de sable
4. Regard de mouette
5. Sur l’infini bleu
6. Claquent les voiles
7. Vague
8. E la nave va
9. Aïn Ghazel
10. Khomsa
11. Seule
12. Nouvelle vague
13. En robe d’olivier
14. Des rayons et des ombres
15. Un sentier d’alliance
16. Comme une absence