In 2015, British guitarist and composer Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) teamed up with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and an Indian ensemble dubbed the Rajasthan Express to bring us Junun. It was a great album, but the icing on the cake came with the accompanying documentary film by American director Paul Thomas Anderson which gave a beautiful insight into the album’s making and some amusing insights into this cross-cultural project. Ben Tzur’s serene qawwali singing rippled outwards, adding to the beautiful ambience and joy in the album and film. The good news is that Greenwood has another project on the horizon – ‘Jarak Qaribak’.
For Jarak Qaribak, which translates more or less as “Your Neighbour Is Your Friend”, Greenwood has teamed up with Israeli singer, musician and producer Dudu Tassa. To be released on 9th June on World Circuit Records, the album is produced by Tassa & Greenwood and mixed by Nigel Godrich. Just as Junun brought together a plethora of talented musicians, so Jarak Qaribak brings together vocalists and musicians from throughout the Middle East for a very special album of cross-border collaborations. The songs on the album, and the singers, are drawn from all over the Middle East – and, in keeping with the theme established by the album’s title, each singer takes a turn at a tune from a country other than their own. Jonny says that his somewhat incongruous benchmark when assembling the tracks on “Jarak Qaribak” was “trying to imagine what Kraftwerk would have done if they’d been in Cairo in the 1970s”.
They’ve collaborated before – Jonny played guitar on ‘Eize Yom’ (‘What A Day’), a track on Dudu’s 2009 album ‘Basof Mitraglim Le’Hakol (‘In The End You Get Used To Everything). Asked what he likes about Jonny’s playing, Dudu replies “It’s everything I can’t do, and don’t know how to do.” Jonny, who is married into an Israeli family hailing originally from Iraq and Egypt, remembers hearing Dudu’s music twinkling amid the prevailing gloom of mid-noughties Israeli rock when Radiohead first visited. “What Dudu was doing had its roots in the Middle East,” says Jonny, “and I just found that more interesting. I was hearing that music at home a lot, as well.”
The album teaser below shows quite a setup some I’m hoping a film will accompany this release as they did for Junun.
The first release is ‘Ashufak Shay’, featuring Lebanese vocalist Rashid al-Najjar:
Tracklisting:
Djit Nishrab (feat. Ahmed Doma)
Ashufak Shay (feat. Rashid Al Najjar)
Taq ou-Dub (feat. Nour Freteikh)
Leylet Hub (feat. Mohssine Salaheddine)
Ya Mughir al-Ghazala (feat. Karrar Alsaadi)
Ahibak (feat. Safae Essafi)
Ya ‘Anid Ya Yaba (feat. Lynn A.)
Lhla Yzid Ikthar
Jan al-Galb Salik (feat. Noamane Chaari & Zaineb Elouati)
Pre-Order here: https://worldcircuit.lnk.to/JarakQaribak