ASWAT (vinyl)

Description

This project is a desire, a wish, and a dream I've held for years. - - It stems from a fundamental quest for 'musical ecstasy,' 'tarab' – that feeling of wonder, that aesthetic emotion, a blend of bliss, delight, and ecstasy one experiences while listening to music. My writing as an 'oriental' musician seeks to capture the challenges of this 'tarab,' nourished by the powerful oral tradition. Today, the project has come to fruition, after more than two years of continuous work, reflection, writing, rewriting, recording, experimentation, and ongoing research into different aesthetic formulas. As I wrote these works, I tried to observe my daily life and transcribe its most (in)significant details: dawn, the morning people, the sounds and smells of everyday life, mothers preparing their children for school, the increasingly rare rain... - I wanted to highlight the importance of these multiple 'details' ('Tafassil') as opposed to the 'whole,' to emphasize how unfair, even dangerous, it is to neglect their importance under the pretext of the eternal search for the 'global' priority. In the isolation imposed by lockdown, surprised by the cruelty of the psychological devastation caused by this tiny yet powerful virus, I took the necessary time to redefine my priorities, to seek inner peace. It was a difficult but essential exercise for me. - - To rediscover and embody silence, simplicity, fragility, strength, tenderness, meditation, beauty... Everything that seemed important and necessary to understand the process of our belonging to this new life. In fact, 'ASWAT' constitutes an inner musical journey and a metaphorical victory over the vicissitudes of daily life - - Throughout my career, I have always considered music as a mysterious clarity that gently or abruptly infiltrates the heart's beats, a delicious tension and a permanent discovery of the joy of time and dreams. As soon as the 'note' leaves the body of a musical instrument, time celebrates meditation and the glory of beauty. This is how I love music, or rather how I perceive it: necessary, intuitive, bringing joy – sometimes pain – contemplative, and respectful of the listener's trust.