East West Symphony (2021)
With last summer's explosion in Beirut still fresh in our minds, so many things in our personal lives feel explosive. Whether Corona or Moria, Trump or Brexit: friendships are breaking up, societies are falling apart, familiarity is mutating into mistrust. "Speak to each other" one would like to proclaim! And so the cultural bridge-builders Masaa, together with conductor Bernd Ruf and the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, call out loudly to the world: "Hiwar - Dialogue".
May everyone overcome their personal Beirut and carry the sentences of Masaa singer Rabih Lahoud in their hearts: "To be a Beiruti means to maintain the bond among the people when the city's splendour is once again destroyed. It means continuing to sing about hope, even when no one wants to listen.
17,00 € including 19% VAT
About The Release
At a time when political polarisation, technological upheaval and health-related isolation are rapidly cooling down, even partially freezing, the dialogue between people, parties and institutions, the ethno-jazz ensemble MASAA and conductor Bernd Ruf send their call for dialogue into the world: Wake up! Stand up! Talk to each other! Christians, Jews and Muslims, jazz musicians and classics, old and young.
In twelve tracks - ten Arabic and one French song as well as one instrumental title - Arabic ornamentation and Western symphonic music intertwine, band and orchestra groove under Brucknerian wind movements and always put the human being in the foreground: the individual human being in dialogue with the community. The dialogue is musically perceptible through the music-making at eye level of orchestra and band. They take turns leading the conversation, agreeing, disagreeing, finding common statements. Vocals, trumpet, percussion and piano combine sensitively with the orchestral sound.
Jazz Ensemble MASAA
Rabih Lahoud, vocals
Marcus Rust, trumpet & horn
Demian Kappenstein, drums & percussion
Clemens Poetzsch, Piano
Jenaer Philharmonie
Bernd Ruf, conductor