ECM Records Anouar Brahem: Le Pas Du Chat Noir

Anouar Brahem - oud
Francois Couturier - pian
Jean-Louis Matinier - acordeon

Hypnotic, magnetic new album by Anouar Brahem which adds a new dimension to our knowledge of this exceptional Tunisian musician. 'Le pas du chat noir' gives the clearest indication yet of the work of Brahem as composer and features a spacious 'chamber music' that resonates with the freshness of improvisation. The instrumentation is unique: oud, piano, accordion. Brahem's writing for this combination is highly evocative, meticulously controlled and sparse. Half of the magic, as he notes, resides in the not-played, in the marvellous mingling of overtones, sounds that rise from the piano to blend with the warm tones of the oud and the breath of the accordion's bellows.

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Songlines Top of the World (Editor's choice)
Choc, Jazzman
Stereoplay, Die Audiophile
Jazz Zeitung, Critics’ choice
Recommandé par Classica
Choice of the month, BBC Music Magazine

The album is at once an extension and an audacious departure from the tradition of the oud. Despite his formidable knowledge of the maqarnat, an ornate system of modes that anchors Arabic music, he seldom bases his improvisations directly on the maqams. His phrasing is pure and uncluttered, expressing itself through silence nearly as often as sound. …
Composed of elegantly flowing lines and somber, breathlike silences, the music shimmers with the overtones of the piano. … Mr. Brahem bases several of the tunes on spare, broken chords, repeated in the childlike manner of Satie. Simple though they are, however, they contain beguiling Arabesques. The three musicians rarely appear at once, performing as a trio on only seven of the album’s 12 tracks. For the most part, you hear duets – piano and oud, oud and accordion, accordion and oud. The musicians often double each other’s lines, but seldom in unison, which enhances the music’s intimacy while producing a floating, echo effect.
If every band projects “an image of coummunity,” as the critic Greil Marcus once suggested, then Mr. Brahem’s trio – part takht, part jazz trio, part chamber ensemble – evokes a kind of 21st century Andalusia, in which European and Arab sensibilities have merged so profoundly that the borders between them have dissolved. The image may be utopian, but its beauty is undeniable.
Adam Shatz, The New York Times

Le pas du chat noir by Anouar Brahem is a complete delight: 70 minutes of intricately dappled, Debussy-like settings for a Maghreb chamber-trio of oud, piano and accordion. And if the light is falling just right, it can make your listening room feel like a Matisse interior.
Phil Johnson, The Independent

The album is like a sad rhapsody, full of shadowy mirages and blue echoes, the prevailing melancholy not dour and heavy but rather light and cloudy. Names like Satie, Debussy, Mounir Bachir, even Eno in acoustic mode keep flashing across your mental screen as you listen. This is academy music with no clothes on, naked and awkward, honest and beautiful. Shut your eyes and you could be in the port of Dar el Baida, a seagull swooping over a grey-blue sea and huge cranes and rusty hulled freighters in the background, the light and forgetful breeze brushing your cheek. Le pas du chat noir features uncontrived performances of cat-like agility – soft, bright-eyed and magical. It is a brilliant piece of work.
Andy Morgan, Songlines

Le pas du chat noir is the latest by the Tunisian oud virtuoso, but Brahem composed much of this new disc at the piano. In many respects this is music revealed rather than made, and it’s suitable for study and meditation as well as listening for pleasure. Brahem’s oud blends beautifully with French pianist François Courturier and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier, and this trio knows how to listen and breathe together, demonstrating that space is as much a part of music as the notes.
Larry Appelbaum, Jazz Times

Who would have thought that the supremely subtle oud could be featured on a recording with piano, that most dominantly Western of instruments? Meticulously arranged and ideally, gorgeously recorded, Le pas du chat noir features Tunisian oud virtuoso/composer Anouar Brahem in a fresh setting conceived at the keyboard and then realized with pianist François Couturier and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier. The result is as redolent of the French minimalism of Satie and, even more so, his Catalan successor Mompou as it is of traditional Arabic music. There is a hushed, highly concentrated quality to this Pan-Mediterranean musical “haiku”, with the notes purified down to their absolute essence. The entire package-music, sound, cover design – is ECM at its best. As much as any of the label’s “crossover” hits, this album brims with appeal for all who have an ear for the best in music.
Bradley Bambarger, Billboard