|
|
 |
CD Review
|
| Click Here to go back. |
Sing Out!, CD Review >>
During the 2007 edition of New York's GlobalFest, the three brothers of Le Trio Joubran - Samir, Wissam and Adnan - put on a spectacular performance of ouds. The Nazarethean family was born into the musical tradition, and Wissam continued in his father's (and grandfather's) footsteps as a luthier, crafting all the brothers' instruments. Watching them live, you feel both a sense of familiar history and cultural ancestry. Their bodies are solid and relaxed; their playing, lightning, though their facial expressions remain soft. THis feeling dominates their second album, Majaz, adding only the occasional and tasteful percussion of Yousef Hbeisch. An instrumental homage to the poetry of men like Palestinian wordsmith Mahmoud Darwish, who has published 38 books and is an important literary voice for the PLO, the brothers hoped to make emotion visual, to make feeling a tangible substance, even if the sounds of their instruments are carried by air and not touched. Indeed, their music is touching; one cannot escape "Masar" without having actually embodied its wordless meaning. Language, to them, is talked with their fingers. The entirety of this fine album is a sonic tribute to the differing ways sound can affect the human spirit. Hence one feels triumphant on "Laytana," a composition reminiscent of riding into battle, or some form of victorious landscape, and you can feel the regality, the overt grandness of "Shajan." Equally, the three chapters of "Tanasim" - one composed by each brother - is the chance to be reflective, to consider and investigate one's inner state within the short silences between each note. It is a lineage, it is a culture and world unto itself; what's most is the stunning and subtle beauty these brothers create.
-DB 06/01/08 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
