ANOUAR BRAHEM – بعد السماء الأخيرة = After The Last Sky (2025) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Oudist and composer Anouar Brahem has kept a low profile since 2017's Blue Maqams. He appeared with Anja Lechner and Francois Couturier on Lontano, but has otherwise been absent. Brahem enlists longtime collaborator/bassist Dave Holland and pianist Django Bates -- both appeared on Blue Maqams. Lechner appears in place of the last album's drummer, Jack DeJohnette, and is the first cellist to appear on one of Brahem's LPs. Recorded in Switzerland, it was produced by Manfred Eicher. The album's name echoes the title of a 1986 book by cultural critic, activist, and author Edward Said, and was derived from a line by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish: "Where should the birds fly, after the last sky?" Begun before October 6, 2023, it is nonetheless deeply inspired by the horror and suffering experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. Brahem wrote new compositions and reworked some of the earlier ones to communicate and evoke raw emotion about this situation. Lechner's poignant cello is primary, up front. She and Brahem move through Eastern modes and motifs, blurring the lines between folk, classical, and jazz.

Opener "Remembering Hind" is a case in point. Under two minutes, the cello and piano deliver Brahem's minor-key melody with nearly processional grace and, despite the relative quiet, rippling emotion. The title track, at nearly six minutes, commences with an oud solo that foreshadows the melody. When Bates enters, he accedes to the restraint, at least until the cellist joins in, and it becomes a melancholy fantasia. The interplay between Holland and Brahem is almost symbiotic. "The Eternal Olive Tree," an oud/bass duet, showcases warmly dissonant harmonies in a celebration of survival and resilience. The duo embrace the blues directly in highlighting Gaza's struggle alongside modal and jazz motivics in their improvisation. "Awake," the set's hinge track, melds classical crossover, Tunisian folk styles, and restrained improv. The bass pattern that introduces "Dancing Under the Meteorites" is a constant pulse that evolves into a tango vamp. Lechner and Bates play around it, touching on the style in their joint conversation until Brahem's contrapuntal solo cements the tune as gorgeous tango-jazz fusion. He offers another lengthy improvisation on the bittersweet, musically riveting "The Sweet Oranges Of Jaffa"; Lechner joins him and delivers her own. Her long experience of improvised music guides her interaction with Brahem and underscores the harmonic invention in her solo. It and the labyrinthine, poignant, inventive "Never Forget" are offered here as hymns of remembrance, adding depth and dimension. It's followed by the tender piano and cello duet "Edward Said's Reverie." The set closes with his beloved "Vague," marking the third time he's recorded it.

The release also includes a long liner essay (for ECM) by U.S. editor of The London Review of Books Adam Schatz, who is also a noted journalist and critic. He offers key reflections on Brahem's music, the Palestinians' fight to exist, and the culture around both. After the Last Sky is a reflective, yet powerfully emotional and virtuosic listening experience. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <- 
Tracklist :
1.    Remembering Hind 1:52
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
2.    After The Last Sky 5:42
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
3.    Endless Wandering 8:11
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
4.    The Eternal Olive Tree 4:00
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem, Dave Holland
5.    Awake 8:49
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
6.    In The Shades Of Your Eyes 4:27
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
7.    Dancing Under The Meteorites 4:25
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
8.    The Sweet Oranges Of Jaffa 7:13
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
9.    Never Forget 7:49
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
10.    Edward Said's Reverie 2:58
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
11.    Vague 3:13
Composed By [Composition By] – Anouar Brahem
Credits :
Double Bass – Dave Holland
Oud – Anouar Brahem
Piano – Django Bates
Producer [Produced By] – Manfred Eicher
Violoncello – Anja Lechner

DINO SALUZZI | ANJA LECHNER — Ojos Negros (2007) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Argentinean bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi and German cellist Anja Lechner don't like to have their work characterized as tango, although it clearly has its roots in the tango tradition. They see their collaborations more as organic, abstract musical expressions, some improvised and some based on preexisting pieces, each performance of which is unique, unencumbered by the necessity to reproduce an earlier musical experience. The fact that they create such deeply felt and mutually attuned performances is a testimony to the years they've committed to listening to and learning from each other. Some of the works have the sound and feel of tangos, but the freedom and inventiveness and expressivity Saluzzi and Lechner bring to the pieces deepens them into something more than dances -- they have the subtlety and sophistication of the best chamber music played with the spontaneity of jazz. The expert engineering by Manfred Eicher emphasizes the intimacy of the collaboration; the tiny sounds of the bandoneon's mechanics are audible, as though the listener were sitting very close, and the bandoneon and the cello are so beautifully blended that sometimes it's not immediately obvious where one instrument begins and the other leaves off. Anyone who loves Piazzolla's music should find much to appreciate in Saluzzi and Lechner's soulful and lyrical playing and in their unique take on that tradition. Stephen Eddins
Tracklist :
1. Tango A Mi Padre 4:20
2. Minguito 7:04
3. Esquina 8:44
4. Duetto 6:08
5. Ojos Negros 5:56
6. El Titere 10:23
7. Carretas 6:33
8. Serenata 8:46
Dino Saluzzi, bandoneón
Anja Lechner, violoncello