Album Notes

Michel Sajrawy Guitars
Valery Lipets Bass
Ameen Atrash Drums
Darwish Darwish Oud and
Leonid Barshtak Violin & Viola, Bashir Asadi Violin, Rabab, Ehab Nimer Violin, Etamar Doari Percussion, Kayed Silawi Tabla, Ramzy Bisharat Rek


YATHRIB - the name of a city, also called Medina, a five-day foot march from Mekka.

YATHRIB - fertile oasis, about 200 km land inwards east of the Red Sea. Home of Arab and Jewish tribes. Melting pot of these cultures.

YATHRIB - These are Jews, Muslims and Christians, who together create a sound experience, a music, completely at ease and far removed from any issues of faith or differences who will surely remain unparalleled for a long time to come.

MICHEL SAJRAWY - was born and grew up in Israel. As a Christian „Arab“ with an Israeli passport, he still feels mostly like a Palestinian.

After extensive studies in Nazareth and London (and quite a few awards later...), SAJRAWY is today a furious guitarist, composer, producer and last but not least sound technician, whose musical ambitions are to reconcile the jazz of western culture with the „Makamat“ of the Arabic Middle East and Schoenberg’s avant-garde.
His regular quartet members are: Valery Lipetz on the E- and double-bass; Armeen Atrash, who masters every nuance between rock and ethnic music styles on his drums, and Darwish Darwish, the newest and youngest member of the band who was declared by the Egyptian Opera to be “the best oud player of the Arab world” in 2003.
On YATHRIB, they are supported by top-class guest musicians like Kayed Silawi (tabla), Leonid Barshtak (violin, viola), Etamar Doari (jarra) and Bashir Asadi (violin).

With all the technical polish, musical virtuosity, compositional extravagance and finesse of the arrangements, MICHEL SAJRAWY’S YATHRIB never lacks that special something that lets music become a permanent impression: Soul!
Very, very carefully and yet powerfully, guitar and oud approach a sensitive topic with „Father“, without getting tied down in sentimentality... „Spiritual Oasis“ kidnaps, seduces, lets desire begin to sprout and never denies that „Oasis“ at the same time implies barrenness and loneliness.
YATHRIB, electrifying and saturated with vibrating emotion, full to the brim with life!