Anouar Brahem – Le Pas Du Chat Noir

Beautiful pressing from an album that truly deserved it, hope to see more of his past releases get the same treatment sometime soon.

The music is wonderful. But there is some noise in my LP.

Mine has a lot of noise from non-fill and a strange white deposit all over side b - a terrible pressing.

to begin, beautiful music! almost perfect vinyl. side B slightly off centred and because of the the fragile piano music this is noticeable. but quiet as the night.

Some of the new LPs from ECM disappointed me badly; poor pressing quality, dished, etc. But this one is great, with no noise and absolutely fantastic sounding.

So beautifully recorded.Manfred Eicher is a musician's engineer and ECM is my favorite label. Really black silence.

Hypnotic, magnetic new album by Anouar Brahem which adds a new dimension to our knowledge of this exceptional Tunisian musician. "Le pas du chat noir" gives the clearest indication yet of the work of Brahem as composer and features a spacious "chamber music" that resonates with the freshness of improvisation. The instrumentation is unique: oud, piano, accordion. Brahem's writing for this combination is highly evocative, meticulously controlled and sparse. Half of the magic, as he notes, resides in the not-played, in the marvellous mingling of overtones, sounds that rise from the piano to blend with the warm tones of the oud and the breath of the accordion's bellows.

Review by Chris Nickson
Oud player Brahem has established his own little niche with the instrument; his music, strongly Arab-inflected, has the spare, chamber feel that makes it a perfect fit in the ECM catalog. He's a contemplative player, and this melding with piano and accordion suits his style perfectly, as notes and ideas draw out marvelously. The interplay between musicians is as delicate as lace -- thoughtful, with everyone listening as much as playing. It's a record with many moments of great beauty, like the exquisite piano on "C'est Ailleurs" or the filigree touches between accordion and piano that decorate and nudge along many of the tracks. Brahem is a superb, if reserved, musician, as are his colleagues: Francois Couturier on piano and Jean-Louis Matinier on accordion. Together they trace something exquisite, an experience for the eras and the heart.