"Syrian-Emirati composer Somar Ajalyaqin (b. 1978) started his relationship with the arts at an early age in his hometown Damascus. After having studied both poetry and painting, he began his musical journey on his mother’s advice, as she advocated a holistic approach to artistic expression. This debut album with Anna Volovitch, piano, Christoph Croisé, cello, Heinz-Peter Linshalm, clarinet and the Santos String Quartet features a collection of compositions in varied styles and instrumentation: from the Five Piano Pieces with playful titles such as The Cat and the Wool Ball, Capriccio Andalucía or The Butterfly and the Flame, to the Sonata for Cello and Piano and the Fantasy for E-flat Clarinet and Piano 'The Cricket in the Mirror', a wide spectrum of sound and expression is represented here. The intensely touching String Quartet 'Wuhan Oblivion', the composer’s most recent work, paints not only a picture of our eerie streets, abandoned during lockdown, but mostly a picture of our inner lives as we fight to overcome this paradoxal moment of communal loneliness."