Daisam Jalo – Cycles (Daisam Jalo. 2023)
Daisam Jalo’s debut album, Cycles, features eight compositions that masterfully blend Eastern Mediterranean music and jazz-fusion, presenting the oud in a new timbral context. The album represents the culmination of long-term experiments with transcultural composition techniques.
Exploring sound transformation through improvisation, Jalo introduces a series of solo oud improvisations titled “Intonation Fetish,” experimenting with new play techniques, intonations, and timbres. These improvisations aim to provide fresh insights while challenging established notions related to Eastern Mediterranean music.
Eastern Mediterranean melodies, jazz harmonies and jazz, rock and eastern Mediterranean rhythms are some ingredients of Cycles. The album contains eight exquisitely crafted tracks that reflect these cycles: wound –> soliloquy –> rush –> fragments –> whirling –> cycles –> light –> back to the beginning. Most of the songs are composed in an eastern Mediterranean jazz-fusion style. Polymetricity, stellar performances, call and response, interplay, and odd rhythms are cornerstones of this dazzling and elegant album.
Daisam Jalo is a Syrian musician, composer and ethnomusicologist living in Berlin. His work is directed towards exploring transcultural narratives of music and music making around the globe. In the same vein, his music represents an ongoing endeavor to experiment with various musical means and composing techniques with the aim of understanding those transcultural narratives and even creating new ones. Cycles is musically a genuine example of experimenting with different genres to achieve a profound transcultural narrative. On a personal level, the album illustrates a deep journey within the inner cycles of pain and light, with which humans are occupied since ever. Cycles focuses, yet, more on mediating and understanding these cycles sonically.
The album was recorded in the Famous Gold Watch Studio in Berlin and features Daisam Jalo on oud; Yasmin Hadisubrata on piano; David Guy on drums and percussion; Felix Barth on upright bass and e-bass guitar; Wesam Karema on accordion; and Fritz Moshammer on trumpet.
Daisam Jalo’s educational path encompasses a commitment to music and cultural exploration. Starting with engineering studies in Damascus, he transitioned to pursue a Bachelor’s in Oud and later a Master’s in Musicology. His Ph.D. focused on Syrian music traditions.
Jalo’s diverse projects, from cultural education initiatives to collaborations with Berlin-based bands, highlight his interest in artistic expression and cultural engagement. His live performances, mixing Eastern Mediterranean music with jazz-fusion, have graced prestigious venues worldwide.
Throughout his academic journey, Jalo has been supported by prestigious scholarships, including DAAD research fellowships, and received the Initiative Musik music production grant in 2023.
Buy Cycles.
Author: Sonia Keller
