Tarek Abdallah & Adel Shams El-Din

Tarek Abdallah & Adel Shams El-Din

Line up

  • Adel Sham El-Din (riqq)
  • Tarek Abdallah (oud)

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Tarek Abdallah is a young oud player, composer and musicologist from Alexandria in Egypt, who draws his inspiration from the period referred to as the Nahda era; the golden age of the wasla classical Egyptian music suite and the art of Egyptian oud solo playing (c. 1900-1930s). He discovered his passion for this music, long neglected in his homeland, when he arrived to study in France over a decade ago and heard some old recordings. In 2013 he met the veteran master of the riqq (classical Arabic tambourine), Adel Shams El-Din in Paris, leading to the recording of the album Wasla, a collection of three suites in various modes. In duo, Abdallah's fluid oud improvisations and Shams El-Din's dexterous negotiation of the complex rhythmic cycles create something fresh and original from an almost lost tradition.