VIDEOS
ABOUT
The Sâbir Quintet is a mixed-instrument ensemble from both the East and the West, brought together around the compositions of oudist and multi-instrumentalist Raphaël Benyoucef.
The term “sâbir” refers to a “composite language used by sailors in Mediterranean ports, blending Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Spanish, and French.” This term perfectly embodies the essence of the Sâbir Quintet: a bridge between the shores of the Mediterranean.
In these resolutely contemporary compositions, rhythms inherited from the Mediterranean world intertwine with the arabesques of the makams, creating a moving memory through the oud and the kanun. But the Sâbir Quintet also features a more Western writing style, with the clarinet and cello, whose woody timbres draw delicately from classical music as well as the energy of jazz, with its cry of freedom, thus creating a fraternal dialogue that transcends borders and eras.
Between a cradle of sweetness and an energy that invokes trance, each piece, like the tales of the 1001 nights, is conceived as a small story, full of salt and bright lights, interweaving into a larger narrative: the quest for self and a elsewhere where the other becomes a part of ourselves.
The term “sâbir” refers to a “composite language used by sailors in Mediterranean ports, blending Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Spanish, and French.” This term perfectly embodies the essence of the Sâbir Quintet: a bridge between the shores of the Mediterranean.
In these resolutely contemporary compositions, rhythms inherited from the Mediterranean world intertwine with the arabesques of the makams, creating a moving memory through the oud and the kanun. But the Sâbir Quintet also features a more Western writing style, with the clarinet and cello, whose woody timbres draw delicately from classical music as well as the energy of jazz, with its cry of freedom, thus creating a fraternal dialogue that transcends borders and eras.
Between a cradle of sweetness and an energy that invokes trance, each piece, like the tales of the 1001 nights, is conceived as a small story, full of salt and bright lights, interweaving into a larger narrative: the quest for self and a elsewhere where the other becomes a part of ourselves.
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