And then there was silence

»Masaa« means evening in Arabic, the interstice between day and night, between past reality and imminent dreams, not really light anymore and not really dark yet. An intermediate time. The quartet led by singer Rabih Lahoud, originally from Lebanon, which also includes Marcus Rust, trumpet, Demian Kappenstein, percussion, and Reentko Dirks, guitar, has chosen this name on purpose. Here the motif of in-between, of transition is programmatic. The stylistic spectrum straddles Orient and Occident, merging Western and Eastern scales in jazz phrasings, transposing Arabic lyrics into the coordinates of folk, blues, chanson and art song. Ethno jazz? World music? Genre categories once again fall short here, trying to convey an idea of the group’s style. Their current project is entitled »And then there was silence«, but theirs is an eloquent silence, powerfully expressive and polyphonic. Highly poetic, too. A dreamy »evening« programme, especially on a Sunday morning.

Das Konzert im Radio: Samstag, 21.05.2022, WDR3 Konzert, 20:04