Al Maslakh

THE HISTORICAL CONCERTS:
In July 2005, the Irtijal festival proposed two concerts(*) of the Brötzmann / Zerang duo in Beirut. This first appearance of German Free Jazz and Improv legend Peter Brötzmann on the middle-eastern/arabic underground scene definitely left a mark on both the players and the audience.
Brötzmann's raw energy found in Beirut "naturally" trained ears to react to his music. The intensity of his playing surprised at first an audience new to this kind of music, then drowned everybody in its tornado.

Zerang's performance is not a usual drummer's one. Not even in Brötzmann's standards. Rarely in the role of the accompanying rythmic partner, he is the perfect match to engage a dialog with the sax player. Passing from complex and intense rhythms to a minimalist/reductionist solo, Zerang ensorcelled the crowd, especially when he played hard-core rhythms and extended techniques on the lebanese national percussion instrument, the darbuka (or debakeh).

THE HISTORICAL CD:
Besides the encounter with a new audience, these concerts were also the occasion for the first duo between Brötzmann and Zerang who share a decade of strong musicianship in groups like the Brötzmann/McPhee/Kessler/Zerang quartet or the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet. The complicity between the musicians is evident from the first to the last sound, and the result is a CD that will definitely have a prominent place in the long Brötzmann history of sax/drums duos started in the seventies with Dutch drummer Han Bennink.

Mazen Kerbaj, march 2006

(*) this CD documents the second concert.

Tracklisting:
1. Illusion Of Progress
2. Yalla Kholoud
3. A Daytime Nightmare
4. Banyan Revolution

Born in Beirut on June 1, 1978. Co-founder and member of Lebanese post-punk group Scrambled Eggs.

Founder of experimental music record label Those Kids Must Choke in 2004. Active member of the Lebanese free improvisation scene and part of MILL(Musique Improvisee Libre au Liban) association since 2002 Member and co-founder of free improvisation group BAO trio, member of the Lebanese free improvisation big ensemble, Moukhtabar Ensemble.

Also works under the monikers, La Chambre, and Kitano Home Ensemble. He has also collaborated with musicians and artists such as Michael Zerang, Gene Coleman, Justice Yeldham And The Dynamic Ribbon Machine, Jean Pallandre, Laurent Grappe, Tadahiko Yokogawa, Discipline, Stephane Rives, Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui, David Stackenas, Mats Gustafsson, Annette Krebs, Christine Sehnaoui, Raed Yassin…

Recorded mixed and mastered by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork studios on the 16th and 17th of January 2012. All track titles are taken from Roberto Bolaño's novel "Nazi Literature in the Americas" Artwork and design by Mazen Kerbaj. Produced in Lebanon by Al Maslakh.

Tracklisting:
1. Itinerant Heroes Or The Fragility Of Mirrors
2. Wandering Women Of Letters
3. Two Germans At The End Of The Earth
4. Magicians, Mercenaries And Miserable Creatures

About the recording:

Christine Sehnaoui and Michel Waiswisz, met in Sweden in September 2006 when they performed a trio with percussionist Sven-Åke Johansson (this music can be heard on the Beirut-Ystad / Olof Bright CD16/17). They kept on working together until the present days whenever that was possible.

The highlight of their collaboration could be several full days of recording at the famous GRM studios in Paris at 2 different periods during the year 2007. Selecting the music that you will hear on this CD has surely been the hardest part of the entire process. There was so much interesting and different material available that narrowing them down to an hour seemed an impossible task. There have been as much as 6 different versions of the recording, many of them with no single track in common, and all of them seemed perfect in the moment.

The final decision was made after the artists gave the label this responsibility. We hope to have made the most out of the material at hand.

About the musicians:

Christine Sehnaoui has emerged in a short period as an innovative alto sax player, developing a personal language on her instrument. She has been involved in the Lebanese improvisation scene since its very first hours.

Michel Waisvisz is a key figure in the live-electronics scene. He is one of the first live performers on synthesizers and the creator of many instruments, the most famous being the Crackle-Box and The Hands.

Shortwave is his first studio recording to be released since the late seventies.

Tracklisting:
1. Wig Wag
2. Preciously Empty
3. Deep Sleep Revelation
4. The Bottom Of The Pond
5. Finding The Short Wave In The Dark

1. Episode 1: Damn You Salah!
2. Episode 2: Nadim Hilmi Is In Danger
3. Episode 3: A Funny Day In Moore
4. Episode 4: Randa's On The Phone
5. Episode 5: I Won't Go To Al-Kawkab Al-Yawmi Today

Tracklisting:
1. S 1.1
2. S 1.2
3. S 1.3
4. S 1.4
5. S 1.5
6. S 1.6

Tracklisting:
1. Song One
2. Song Two
3. Song Three
4. Song Four
5. Song Five

Tracklisting:
1. "To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before"
2. Trane

Tracklisting:
1. Helsinki
2. Oslo