AKUPHONE

In Wa (Arabic for and), their third album together as a duo, Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler continue to interrogate their listening and their expression, their research and their desires, to unravel a musical universe of possibilities; “ a unison of timbres, cultures complementing, the complicity of verses, and modes and languages confronting each other ” in the duo’s own way of communicating respective origins and contemporaneity. Lyrical, within a sound full of contrast and ornamentation, they pursue an expansion of their repertoire with imaginative interpretation and improvisation.

For this release, Jubran and Hasler seek new sonic and phonetic territory, based on the wasla compound form found in the classical repertoire of Near Eastern music and in Western modern and improvised music; a suite of musical explorations within one composition. In the 45-minutes-long piece that makes up the full length album, they gradually unveil to us the tenants of this artistic dialogue, as they deepen a longstanding musical pact nurtured since 2002 based on the probing and opening up of musical modes and traditions. The chemistry between Jubran and Hasler’s exchange gives birth to a singular, original and extratemporal sound.