Anouar Brahem - After the Last Sky

Anouar Brahem presents After the Last Sky, a concert by the Tunisian oud player and composer with an international quartet, at the Barbican Hall in London. The project takes its title from a line by the poet Mahmoud Darwish.

The project takes its title from a line of verse by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, which asks where the birds should fly once the last sky has gone. Anouar Brahem, a Tunisian oud player and composer who has been active since 1991, presents it as a set of chamber pieces for oud, cello, piano and double bass that address this metaphysical question and its wider resonances in a troubled time. It arrives eight years after the album Blue Maqams.

The quartet brings together Brahem's oud with the piano of the British musician Django Bates, the cello of Anja Lechner and the double bass of the Norwegian musician Mats Eilertsen, who joins the group for this tour. The arrangements give particular weight to the dialogue between cello and oud, and the musicians listen closely to one another throughout the pieces. The material draws on the traditional modes of Arab music while also taking in influences from other cultures.

The Barbican Hall is a concert venue on Silk Street in the City of London. The evening suits listeners interested in jazz and in Arab music who want to hear a small ensemble built around the oud.