Strasbourg, Parc du Contades, 17 June 2021, around 5pm.

The duo set up under the park's historic bandstand. The first notes of the double bass and oud echo in the warm early summer air, and Kamilya's song rises up and escapes...

I remember the words of a man who was passing by: ‘It's been a long time since I've heard this beautiful language sung...’. Nothing is ever lost.

That was the day we talked about the possibility of making a record.

That first session, recorded in the studio, is the essential trace of twenty years of friendship and shared music.  The crossroads of their musical paths between the Near East and the West has produced a unique sound that has been nourished by the sources of their respective, multi-faceted heritages. The timbres are so close, almost in the same register, that it's sometimes hard to know who's playing what, or who's playing who.

The words flow freely through the often complex structures, but the duo's playing is fluid. It's the miracle, as in poetry. The essential thing is not necessarily to understand everything. The essential thing is to be caught in the trap, to grasp the unspeakable.

As I stand there listening, I can smell lemon fruit that we've never tasted before, filling the air. People are sitting under the trees, hopeful.

What is left of love?

Philippe Ochem, Jazzdor

IN STORES ON 6 DECEMBER 2024

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