180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL 4 PAGE INSERT Dhafer Youssef is a composer, singer and oud player from Tunisia. The oud is an Arabic lute, a pear-shaped string instrument that can achieve a beautiful sound from those who know how to master it. Youssef developed an interest for jazz music at an early age and started singing when he was still five years old. Music comes natural to him as he is derived from a long line of muezzins and mastering vocal performances is to him a heritage and a family tradition. Later he left his homeland to start a jazz career and has lived in Europe since 1990, usually in Paris or Vienna. He also works in avant garde and world music where he has been nominated for awards. Today he is considered to be the most inventive oud player and a leader of the movement referred to as contemporary music, which fuses Eastern and Western music. Dhafer Youssef's talent extends to the world of film music. Critics note his outstanding performance in the soundtrack of Black Gold composed and conducted by the legendary James Horner in 2011. The latter invites him to a new collaboration in 2012 for the soundtrack of The Amazing Spider-Man. In 2013 Dhafer Youssef released his album Birds Requiem. This album is a very personal recording that has been prepared at a turning point of the artist's life. The album is structured around the Birds Requiem Suite ("Birds Canticum", "Fuga Hirundinum", "Archaic Feathers" and "Whirling Birds Ceremony") and can be posed as music for an imaginative movie.
