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01. KHYAM ALLAMI - Individuation
02. KHYAM ALLAMI - Naghmat Tahrir
03. KHYAM ALLAMI - Tawazon I: Balance
04. KHYAM ALLAMI - An Alif/An Apex
05. KHYAM ALLAMI - Tawazon II
06. KHYAM ALLAMI - The Descent (Maqam Nawa)
07. KHYAM ALLAMI - Reverie
ARTIST
TITLE
Resonance/Dissonance
FORMAT
CD/DVD

LABEL
CATALOG #
NAWA 001CD NAWA 001CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
7/5/2011

It's not often that you stumble on a musician at the start of his career whose biography is as intriguing as Khyam Allami's. Since taking up the oud (Middle Eastern lute) in 2004, he has already generated a "palpable buzz" about him and "left a trail of unforgettable live performances in his wake" according to the UK's fRoots Magazine who recently put him on their cover. Whether at small independent venues, Birmingham's alternative/experimental Supersonic festival, WOMAD or the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall, Khyam always enchants with the lucid beauty of his music. His debut solo oud album, Resonance/Dissonance (released on his own label Nawa Recordings), is a rare and ambitious effort. It is a double-disc featuring a solo studio recording on the CD and a live performance of the entire album on the DVD. Musically, it is based on the concept of maqam (the modal system of Middle Eastern music), seemingly stark and simple yet overtly complex. Unusual approaches to the maqams combine with original, highly structured and detailed "composed-improvisations." Recurring themes and melodic shapes render a cohesive narrative, accented by sensitive dynamics and rhythmic outbursts using unusual rhythmic cycles, all of which intertwine around complete compositions and a dark rendition of the traditional Iraqi maqam nawa. Mystical in its lucidity and abstract in its poetry, Resonance/Dissonance is unique, soulful, beautiful, dark, heavy and hopeful all at once. A truly boundary-crossing musical work for fans of Middle Eastern, classical, progressive, jazz, improvised, world and avant-garde. DVD: PAL format; Region free; 52 minutes; Stereo; DVD tracklisting -- same as the CD; Color.