Album Review: Rabih Abou-Khalil - Trouble in Jerusalem

Working from home means I get to listen to literally hundreds of albums every month. So, in 2011, I am going to try and listen to as much new music as I possibly can in the hope of unearthing a gem. I appreciate I will have to take the rough with the smooth, but that's half the fun. OK. Here we go...

Rabih Abou-Khalil: Trouble in Jerusalem

Trouble in Jerusalem is not the sort of record I would normally listen to. Being perfectly honest, when I read that Rabih Abou-Khalil was a leading oud player, I had to look up what an 'oud' was (which, you'd have thought, didn't bode well for my enjoyment). However, it is actually quite a nice listen.

The Guardian says: "Some might be intrigued by the historical context: a brief episode of Judeo-Christian-Islamic harmony from the Third Crusades celebrated in the 1922 German silent film Nathan the Wise, and rekindled by Abou-Khalil's TV-commissioned symphonic score for that movie."

Gulp. Let's be frank: I have no idea what that previous paragraph is all about. Ignoring the historical context or the "composer's usual exuberant spontaneity, surrealism and political wit" being "overwhelmed by great-and-good obligations", it's an album of instrumental music in a broadly Middle-Eastern style. And, actually, it works rather well. There's some bombastic orchestral interludes (which reminded me of some of John Barry's folk tinged James Bond soundtracks) and, all in all, it's a nice mixture of European and Middle Eastern influences.

I'll probably never, ever listen to this record again. And, I am sure many people will think it sounds like the sort of background music you'd hear in a ropey Turkish restaurant. Still, I didn't feel the need to turn it off before the end, and so that represents something of a triumph.