Arab Music From The Time Of The Crusades

Ensemble Al Kindi, Omar Sarmini (chorus)

Julien Jalaleddin Weiss lives in a 14th c. Mamluk palace topped with resounding domes, in the heart of the old part of Aleppo, in northern Syria. He chose this country so as to live in a world teem ing with symbols, where he could contemplate the Divine Being through music. After the Music Room and the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus, he calls upon the timeless art of the qasida to evoke the Levant of the Crusades through the emblematicfigure of Prince Usama. The Al-Kindi Ensemble enters into a dialogue with the past, where East and West come together, in spite of their multitude of differences. Their voices filter down through time, weaving a background where the magic and violence of love, blood, the passion of the senses come alive in the mellfluous tones of Omar Sarmini's mystic yet earthly singing. Myriam Anta

Price: $25.98