Al Bidayeh
(The Beginning)
Syriana
It is said that Damascus - old Damascus, the 7,000-year-old capital of Syria - is a bit like a veiled woman who keeps her beauty hidden. Get close, and you're dazzled. In this labyrinthine city whole worlds of activity exist behind closed doors. Sights and sounds are imbued with an almost sensual power. Calls to prayer echo alongside music that has sweeping scope and epic punch; music that keeps the past alive as it surges, wave-like, into the future. Eastern music. Western music. A compelling fusion of both.
Having experienced her splendour and worked closely with her artisans, Syriana presents Al Bidayeh (The Beginning), an EP that brings this cryptic Middle Eastern metropolis to the world. Four tracks, four different takes: Gharibb (Stranger), a sung meditation on notions of home. Road to Damascus, with its call-and-response vocals and swelling strings. Syriana, which nods to movie themes and Fifties Arabia, to great divas Fairuz and Abdel Halim. Sunday/Randall and Hopkirk Deceased/Peter's Room, part improvisation, part Sixties TV theme tune on qanun (Arabic dulcimer), piano and guitar.
Syriana begins in London, when Nick "Dubulah" Page and Syrian Qanun player, Abdullah Chhadeh, finally get around to starting a collaborative project discussed some years earlier... Nick, the half-Greek, half-English guitarist/bassist of Trans Global Underground and Temple of Sound, travelling producer for the likes of Mexican anarcho-punks Los de Abajo and the visionary behind the wildly acclaimed Dub Colossus. Abdullah, virtuoso musician, arabic composer and lyricist. Nick and Abdullah were soon augmented by the Irish double bass player, composer and MD Bernard O`Neill, who had worked with Abdullah prior to Syriana. Since this inception the group have grown into an evolving concept with a growing number of collaborative musicians.
