KURBEH,KHALED/RAMAN KHALAF ENSEMBLE - Aphorisms (Sealed) (LP)

Henrik Schwarz’s Between Buttons label is pleased to announce its second release, Aphorisms, is a six track debut record from Syrian musicians Khaled Kurbeh and Raman Khalaf Ensemble. Raman Khalaf and Khaled Kurbeh are now based in Berlin but hail from Syria, and that shows in the music they have been making together since 2015. Their sound mixes up Raman’s oud playing and vocals with Khaled’s piano and synthesisers, and ranges from largely acoustic, such as on this EP, to more electronic when performing live. The music itself fuses ambient, jazz, minimal and world styles right from the off. Opener Toska is an epic cinematic opener. It’s warm and gentle with oud and violins making for their own little chapters in the overall story. Interlude is an absorbing passage of piano, double bass and synth and then To Kafranbel is nimble and dynamic as keys and oud sounds dance about. Al Baseet is another upbeat number with hand claps and oud bringing a nice sense of groove to the Iraqi-style vocals up top, while Shamal is a snippet of a long, bass driven studio live jam with claps, djembe and percussion before the pensive pianos of Einsamkeit Impromptu round things out in tender fashion. The artwork for this release is an etching by artist Yaser Safi and will come as 10 limited edition etchings printed at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art. It is a special final touch to a special debut record from this exciting new musical collective