Various Artists - Samir Odeh-Tamimi: Chamber Works (2020)

Samir Odeh-Tamimi has developed his own distinctive musical language which draws upon his intense involvement with both western avant-garde music and Arabic musical performance practice. Full of enthusiasm for the European classics as well as new music, the composer and painter, born in an Arabic village near Jaffa/Tel-Aviv, arrived in Germany at the age of 22, where he studied the works of his compositional role models- including Giacinto Scelsi and Iannis Xenakis- as well as questioning the musical culture of his native country, which he had studied in his youth as a member of an ensemble performing traditional Arabic music on contemporary instruments. Zafraan stands for music that reflects all facets of life, society and reality today. In combination with other art forms, Zafraan observes, explores and processes that which surrounds us: people, events, nature and technology, the normalities and absurdities of today. The ensemble constitutes ten fixed members from Spain, France, New Zealand, Australia and Germany, and was founded in Berlin in 2009.