Reissue of Anouar Brahems 1995 album Khomsa featuring Richard Galliano, Jean Marc Larch and Bechir Selmi, alongside ECM mainstays Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen.

Brahem is recognised as a masterly interpreter of the Tunisian and pan-Islamic music traditions and as an exceptional improviser, able to build on those traditions. Inside his home country, however, Anouar also has a long history of working with film and theatre, and Khomsa revisits and quite freely reworks material he had written over the preceding decade for these contexts. These pieces, he notes, have remained within me as the image of a collection of sensations quick to vibrate. They emphasize Brahems compositional skills as much as his soloistic abilities.

The musicians brought together on Khomsa - the albums dramaturgy calls for continually shifting permutations of the personnel - include three players Brahem has often worked with over the years (Selmi, Couturier and Larch) and three whom he encountered here for the first time (Galliano, Danielsson and Christensen).

Brahem continues to reveal new aspects of his oud playing on Khomsa. If Claquent les voiles, a duet with Danielsson, intensifies the Andalusian strain hinted at on the Barzakh album, En robe dolivier suggests West African colours, the oud taking on some of the bright, percussive quality of the kalimba. In these pieces, as on his subtle, extended solo on Linfini jour, Brahem - who is often praised for his virtuosity - shows his ability to transcend mere technique to get to the essence, the heart, of the music.

Anouar Brahem: oud

Richard Galliano: accordion

Franois Couturier: piano, synthesizer

Jean Marc Larch: soprano saxophone

Bechir Selmi: violin

Palle Danielsson: double-bass

Jon Christensen: drums