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Nicholas Seeley reviews Sard |
Nizar Rohana: Sard
The new album by the well-known Palestinian oud player bends the rules of a traditional art form, but doesn't break them, and the effect is striking.
Words by Nicholas Seeley
NIZAR ROHANA STARTS OFF slow, delicately picking at the strings to the accompaniment of a frame drum, and one could be forgiven for expecting a set of traditional standards. But not so: traditional oud playing may be the starting point for 34-year-old Palestinian musician, but it's far from the end.
The drums stop, and Rohana launches into a set of blistering riffs, their circling motifs recalling Mississippi trance blues, the angry snapping of his fingers on the strings telling a story of frustration and violence.
The song is called “Emm el-Zeinat,” and it's the name of a town in Palestine -- or, we should say, a town that used to be in Palestine, near where Rohana grew up. It's gone now, its 20,000 inhabitants among those chased from their homes in the Nakba.
What Rohana captures in his live performance is not the inhabitant's sense of loss -- how could it be? -- but his own emotional accompaniment to it; the harmonics of frustration.
He performed on January 22 at the King Hussein Cultural Center to mark the launch of his new album, Sard, on the Eka3 alternative label.
The seven tracks on Sard are primarily original compositions, though there is one classic oud piece and one by Lebanese singer Ahmad Qaabur. “Emm el-Zeinat” is among them, and it's an excellent performance, though it doesn't capture the raw emotion of the live, solo version. In a recording, it's the more technical and thoughtful pieces that stand out most, like the excellent title track, “Sard.”
Rohana doesn't call his music fusion, and stresses that it's not a blend of styles. It's his own experimentation, and it has moments that recall blues, or madrigals, or 1960s psychedelia, while still maintaining the basic language of a traditional instrument.
“It's problematic,” he says. “I'm not really doing traditional music, that's not the point. My language is traditional, but it's new -- I have my own ideas about what is new.”
Related Links
Listen to samples from Sard
Learn more about Nizar Rohana
Read more at JO Magazine
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