Album Notes

Sard (Narration, in Arabic) is a unique music production from Palestine. In it the authenticity of the oud language is highly maintained, yet refreshing new expressions and rhythms are achieved through the dialogues with other instruments such as the double bass, the qanoun and the percussion.

The album includes five pieces composed by Nizar Rohana: Sard, Umm El Zeinat, Iraq, Ajam, and Hijaz. In addition, two familiar tunes were specially arranged for this recording: Sama’i Farahfaza by Jamil Al-Tanbouri, and Ya rayeh sawb bladi by Ahmad Qaabour.

The participating musicians on the album are Nizar Rohana - oud, Hani Assad - percussion, Geoffroi Delori - double bass, Waffa Zaghal - qanoun, and Khaled Jubran - musical supervision. This production was partly financed by Cultural Resource (Egypt) in collaboration with Al-Urmawi Centre (Palestine).

Nizar Rohana is a prominent Oud player in the Palestinian musical scene. Rohana was born in the village of ‘Esefya on Mount Carmel in 1975. He began his musical education at an early age and playing the Oud by the age of fifteen, and in 1996 he moved to Jerusalem to take up academic studies. Focusing his research on the music of the great Egyptian composer Mohammad el-Qasabji, Rohana completed his Masters degree in Musicology 2006. Along with his intensive activity on the local musical scene, during the last ten years Rohana has been performing in many countries around the world such as Japan, Marroco, Egypt, United States, Spain, England, Italy, France, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belguim, Portugal and Switzerland.