Aalbat Alawi Op.99

Description

El Khat is named after the Middle Eastern chewing drug. It's true that the band's music is becoming increasingly addictive. Their second album, Aalbat Alawi Op.99, is a joyful record where catchy melodies follow one another. Aalbat Alawi Op.99 reflects the vision of Eyal el Wahab, the band's leader who composed and arranged the vast majority of the album. El Khat's music looks both to tradition and to the future. El Wahab plays many instruments on Aalbat Alawi Op.99, such as the dli and the kearat, which he built himself. A carpenter, he began creating instruments by using his skills to make music from discarded objects. A child of the Yemeni diaspora, he grew up in Israel, and this practice reminds him of his family's country of origin where even trash can become instruments. Eyal el Wahab carved out a path for himself in the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra as a cellist, self-taught and unable to read music. He learned the repertoire as he went along, by ear, while learning music theory. But his world opened up even more when he was given Qat, Coffee & Qambus: Raw 45s from Yemen, a record of traditional Yemeni music from the 60s. He then left the orchestra to build his own instruments and form El Khat. Aalbat Alawi Op.99 is an album of glorious contrasts, from the intense "Ala Al Ma" to the eponymous track that closes the album. It's a piece that features no ordinary instruments. Everything is made of metal, plastic or wood. Like all music in 2020, the recording of Aalbat Alawi Op.99 was affected by the global pandemic. As a result, the album was not completed until spring 2021, and what emerged surprised him. It's an album full of emotions, beginning with the solitary cello call on the opening track "Ma'afan," a spectacular piece that builds on a simple riff to become something majestic, with percussion as powerful as any melodic instrument, before exploding into a glorious brass finale. It's a stunning starting point, setting a pace that never stops accelerating. "La Sama" begins with dark piano notes to become a prayer of hope. "El Khat," as befits a song named after the band, welcomes us with a thick, seductive groove fueled by bass and percussion, with blazing guitar work. While the last album, Saadia Jefferon, saw Eyal el Wahab bring a funky and psychedelic reinterpretation to traditional Yemeni songs, this record is almost entirely filled with his own compositions, something close and personal. And the concept of using what people don't need is vital. Nothing is wasted.