Customer Rating: 
Summary: Drift away to another place and another time ...
Comment: I originally bought this CD for my partner as the one he had had developed track grooves from overplaying. But now, I listen to it more than him - when I simply need to wind down, calm myself, transport myself, and especially at bed time when sleep doesn't always come easily. Highly recommend as a 'must-have' in any collection.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Evocative, relaxing music
Comment: I was introduced to the artist by a friend living in Santa Monica. I walked in her living room and heard the music and instantly had to know who it was (I had not heard of him). I now own three CDs and his music is evocative of other wondrous places far away from North America. It's relaxing and enervating and soothes the soul.
Customer Rating:
Summary: musical pattern-painter
Comment: "One of the ironies of the current vogue for so-called world musics is that the adventurous listener often finds himself championing forms exotic to his ear which are, in their true context, fundamentally conservative." (-- Steve Lake in the original liner notes)
While I don't know my oud music well enough to know if this is astonishing or breathtaking, it is a very pleasant listen -- meditative or sensuous depending on the listener's mood. The pieces are mostly short and well-composed, and the recording upholds ECM's reputation for clarity and simplicity -- oud, violin and goblet drums, without any post-production to speak of.
It's certainly a virtuoso performance to my ears.
Like the complex and beautiful calligraphy that adorns the cover, Barzakh is refined and virtuosic, yet intricate enough to really focus the listener. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Stunning album and artist
Comment: Anouar Brahem and his Oud continue to make wonderfully emotive music of great depth. At times pensive and melancholy, at others upbeat, he achieves something in music that is ineffable and all too rare. I highly recommend ANYTHING by him, but I prefer this album, with "Le conte de l'incroyable amour" in second place.If you are a fan of ethnic music or of string instruments in general, you would do well to check this out. Lute and Guitar players alike stand to learn a lot from Brahem.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A DISC OF BREATHTAKING BEAUTY AND TECHNIQUE
Comment: Let me state from the beginning that anything you're fortunate to find by Anouar Brahem is going to be excellent. This man is one of the most talented, consistently tasteful musicians around. He is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, but his main instrument is the oud - the lute of the Arabic music world - and that's what he plays on this recording, accompanied simply and beautifully by Bechir Selmi on violin and Lassad Hosni on percussion. All of the compositions here - based on traditional Arabic music forms - are by Brahem, except for `Barzakh' (composed by Brahem and Selmi); and `Souga' and `Bou Naouara' (composed by Hosni).There are slow, moderate, and fast-paced pieces here - most are relatively short, with a couple of moderately long pieces and one lengthy one. The musical ideas and themes are developed intelligently, with grace and incredible beauty - and none of the faster-paced passages give the feeling that the players are utilizing the tempo simply to impress the listener. They allow the music to take them where it will, with no unnecessary side trips or embellishments - but even with the sparse instrumentation (or perhaps because of it), each piece is full and complete.
ECM has a long-standing reputation for releasing music that refuses to be rammed into the corner of a single genre - BARZAKH is an outstanding example of that freedom of thought. This is a recording that can be appreciated by almost anyone - fans of world/ethnic music (for obvious reasons); jazz (taqsim is the Arabic term for improvisation around an established theme, an important aspect of these pieces); and classical (for the Arabic classical elements in this music are strong). The recording quality, as in every ECM release I've ever heard, is exceptional and `trick'-free, presenting the music to the listener with as few barriers as possible.
This is a truly outstanding recording - and one of my favorites of any genre.
