“I have no doubt that my relationship with this great musical instrument is mentally and sensually vital. This seems to be an evidence, when my memory takes me from one place to another.
This relationship has never been an intuitive and an easy one … I can describe it as a parallel because it has always surprised me by its presence / absence without losing its influence on me.
An instrument with such a deep sound and a body that I embrace, give me the feeling that it’s a continuation of my body and soul
The oud is the only instrument that gives me this feeling.
Its voice constantly narrates me stories of sadness and happiness, its stories are sometimes ambiguous… but their impact on me is always so deep. This instrument has a lasting ability to free my feelings, sometimes better than words. It can tell the stories of my journeys and encounters. It was and still is the beating heart of my present and my future thoughts“.
Biography
The interest of this musician for the oud comes from his hometown in Tunisia, where he learned its basics and loved them by a handful of masters who taught him the Middle-Eastern maqam and its vast extension (Tunisian Arab Andalusian heritage, Egyptian, Iraqi, Armenian …)
He shaped his influence by listening to musicians such as Munir Bashir and Jamil Bashir, Ali Sriti, Farid Ghosn, Riyad Al-Sunbati, Anwar Ibrahim, Paco de Lucia, Nass El Ghiwane and others…
He continues to raise the voice of this instrument through his own way in order to find links with jazz, flamenco and contemporary music.
By his open-mindedness to musical dialects in all their varied forms, he found different and renewed meanings of what the music of the East can be today.
His special interest in finding interaction between music, theater, poetry and image encouraged him to work on connecting these fields. This is why he was invited to work as a musician with British stage director Tim Supple in the “Arabian nights” with a group of artists from all over the Middle-East in Paris and Cairo.
He was also invited to compose music for the actress and playwright Fayza Kaddour “Femmes et une nuit” in Bordeaux, France.
He worked with actors such as Muhammad Al-Bakri (Palestine) and Bjorn Sindquist (Norway) in “Al Kamanjati” project, which was a musical piece produced by the Auditorium of music In Rome, about music and life in the Palestinian Refugee camps.
He worked on the poetry of Pilar Gonzalez Espana, Mahmoud Darwish, Ibn Al-Fardh, Al-Hallaj and Paul Andrei’s tales that he translated from French into Arabic. He also translated “Les Cheminants” of the Tunisian poet Tarek Essaker, and he is composing special music for this soufi poem, which is considered as contemporary and critical point of view about patriarchy.
He has a keen interest in film music.
He worked with various musicians on writing music for “Happiness” by Alexander Madvidkin.
He also composed music for short films such as “Demain In challah” by French director Celie Alix, “Kedaba” by French-Moroccan Director El-Hashmia Didi Alaoui and “Chrétiens d’Irak” by French director Sybille Delaitre.
He is currently an active oud player in bands such as the Khimaira Quartet that he founded with the Mexican guitarist Luis Pufleau Velasco or Diwanimi band that he founded with Yacine Amarouchene.
He is also a member of the Palestinian musician Ramzi Aburedwan bands, Dal’ouna and Al Manara.