Vinyl edition of the 2017 album. This album should be a soundtrack to a romantic contemporary movie set somewhere in the Middle East. Its jazz, traditional instrumentation, and cinematographic qualities would fit into scenes of a hotel room, a nightclub, a Sufi shrine, an Arabic garden, and city vistas and streets. Two groups of musicians are combined for this project: one from Germany [Quadro Nuevo], an acoustic jazz quartet that favors tangos and includes harp and accordion, and the other from Egypt [Cairo Steps], which comprises German and Egyptian musicians including founders oud player Basem Darwisch and pianist Matthias Frey, who perform jazz and Middle Eastern grooves. Combined, they comprise 18 instrumentalists playing violins, cello, kanun zither, oud, ney flute, piano, bass guitar, double bass, percussion, saxophones, harp, and accordion. The two bonus, live tracks, bring in two Sufi singers and Western and kawala Arabic flutes. Thus, the large ensemble produces a lush, full Middle Eastern orchestral sound.
