Diagnostic (harmonia mundi)

Although we might start out with graceful Western European grand piano and an almost classical style, the moment the trumpet (I understand it’s a four-valve instrument) enters in track two it is clear that we have moved geographically, to the south-east.

In the course of this album, the third in a trilogy (the others are called Diasporas and Diachronism), we go on something of a tour, not only of the world but of musical styles, ending up with a bonus track which goes to the heart of the Lebanese/French Ibrahim Maalouf’s source heritage: Beirut.

In addition to trumpet, Maalouf also plays modified trumpet, piano, frame drums, marimba, keyboards, electronic bass, electronics and sings. He also has some assistance from a wide range of musicians, from accordion to harmonica, depending on the track. All this gives a rich and eclectic sound to the album, and it feels more like a soundtrack to Maalouf’s touring life than, say, a band in the studio.

That touring life seems to take in jazz, rock, Latin, rap, and all kinds of traditional music from around the world. The fact that he has played with Sting, Vanessa Paradis, Amadou et Mariam, Georges Moustaki and Lhasa, among many others, highlights that here is a world, and worldly, musician confident of his own music and able to play in nearly any context.

On the marvellous Maeva In The Wonderland he banks up the trumpets in rich brass sections, and underlays it with piano improvisation and Cuban percussion. By contrast the solo piano Your Soul has the folk simplicity and beautiful directness that emerges outside of genre, a bit like it does at times on some of the music of bassist and singer Avishai Cohen.

Then, as if stepping from the quiet salon into the dangerous market place, we hear Everything Is Nothing, with chorus and trumpets over some threatening chugging guitar, before that gives way to a trumpet solo so closely recorded we can almost hear Maalouf’s lips smacking the mouthpiece.

Never Serious sounds like a mad jam session with Middle Eastern brass men and percussionists sitting in with Southern States swamp rockers. Maalouf gives full reign to the quarter tones of the trumpet, and in a delirious mix with accordion it seems both alligators and snakes may be charmed.

This is a wide-ranging and remarkably eclectic album, held together by the strength of musical character of its creator rather than any particularly clear, or rather easily discerned, vision.

It should have wide appeal among all those with ears that are drawn to the cracks between genres, or to the overarching pure music that transcends those genres.