Track of the Week: Anouar Brahem’s ‘After the Last Sky,’ ECM

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Anouar Brahem photo Sam Harfouche, ECM

Anouar Brahem photo: Sam Harfouche/ECM

After the Last Sky Anouar Brahem video, streaming track and details

The title of Anouar Brahem‘s upcoming album After The Last Sky was inspired by lines of verse from Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008).

Personnel joining the Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem are the great In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew bassist Dave Holland with fellow Englishman Django Bates known for his work with Loose Tubes, Delightful Precipice and in more recent years the joyous Bird inspired Study of Touch by his Belovèd. Acclaimed German cellist Anja Lechner completes the sound.

Displacement theme inspired

“Where should we go after the last frontiers?
Where should the birds fly after the last sky?”

– Mahmoud Darwish

Title track ‘After the Last Sky’ is the first to stream and in our daily playlist several times recently

Lechner explores pitch black tonal dimensions

Classical player Lechner is on a Brahem album for the first time. Holland and Bates appeared previously on Brahem’s Blue Maqams.

The beautiful Blue Maqams – Brahem with Holland and Bates plus Holland’s fellow Bitches Brew drummer Jack DeJohnette – was issued in October 2017. The upcoming album is also on ECM.
The full After the Last Sky album is out on 7 March.

Brahem’s compositions are inspired by Arabic music, jazz improvisation and European classical traditions. The album was recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in May last year. Manfred Eicher who produced the album can be glimpsed at the console in the video.

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