Oghneya

An absolutely legendary album from Lebanon by Issam Hajali's group Ferkat Al Ard, Oghneya stands out as one of the great musical gems of the Arab world. A groundbreaking release from 1978 that represents the meeting point of Arab, jazz, folk, and Brazilian styles with the talent of Ziad Rahbani, who did the album's arrangements.

Filled with a variety of sounds and genres, from baroque pop to psych-folk to flashes of bossa nova, tropicalia, and MPB, Oghneya is like if Arthur Verocai took a trip to Beirut in the 70's to record an album.

In 2015, we heard Ferkat Al Ard's music for the first time, a Lebanese trio compromised of Issam Hajali, Toufic Farroukh, and Elia Saba. It was a stunningly unique release that blends traditional Arabic elements, jazz, and Brazilian rhythms hand in hand with poetic-yet-politically engaged lyrics.

The band was active in the left-wing movement of Lebanon at the time and they communicated their political ideas candidly through their songwriting. In our mind, the idea was to see whether Issam was interested in re-releasing Oghneya. He was not opposed to it, but also made it clear that it was not his priority for a first project. He suggested we start with his first album, before Ferkat Al Ard was formed, Mouasalat Ila Jacad El Ard, which was recorded in 1977 in Paris together with his friend Roger Fakhr (whose work we have been privileged to re-release in the meantime as well.)

Mouasalat Ila Jacad El Ard is melancholic, stripped-down, guitar-based folk intertwined with jazz-fused breaks, and the unique sound of the santour glistens through. While the music is very accessible, some song structures are rather atypical, neglecting common patterns of verse, hook, verse, hook. The lyrics mostly trace back to the poetic work of Palestinian author Samih El Kasem, with one song also written by Issam, who composed the music for the whole album.