Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and renowned Israeli musician Dudu Tassa announced a new album, Jarak Qaribak, arriving on June 9 via World Circuit Records. The pair previewed the record with, “Ashufak Shay,” featuring Lebanese vocalist Rashid al-Najjar.
Having first collaborated in 2009, Greenwood and Tassa are teaming back up for Jarak Qaribak, mixed by longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. An Arabic phrase, “Jarak Qaribak” roughly translates in English to “Your Neighbor Is Your Friend.”
“It’s an expansive, inclusive sentiment,” press materials for the LP stated. “The songs on the album, and the singers, are drawn from all over the Middle East; and, in keeping with the theme established by the album’s title, each singer takes a turn at a tune from a country other than their own.”
Contributors on Jarak Qaribak include Egyptian singer Ahmed Doma, Palestinian vocalist Nour Freteikh, Morocco’s Mohssine Salaheddine and Dubai’s Safae Essafi.
“When people listen to this music, I really love to imagine them thinking…what is this?” Tassa mused. “It sounds 1970s, but there are drum machines, there are guitars but they’re singing in Arabic…what’s going on?”
Greenwood added he was “trying to imagine what Kraftwerk would have done if they’d been in Cairo in the 1970s,” when working on Jarak Qaribak.
As Jonny is married into an Israeli family originally hailing from Iraq and Egypt, he was familiar with Middle Eastern music. But it took some retooling to actually play it. Jonny saw parallels between the new record with Tassa and his work with Israeli musician Shye Ben Tzur.
“Jarak Qaribak presented a similar set of problems,” Jonny said, “in that you have all these scales which don’t conform to western major/minor scales, and have notes which involve quarter-tones, and it’s very hard to impose a chord sequence on these melodies. It usually makes them collapse. It’s like reducing the resolution on a color photo until it’s just squares.”
Also challenging were the logistics of working with musicians from across the Middle East. While they didn’t set out to make a political record, both Greenwood and Tassa were aware of the possible political implications.
“We didn’t want to make out that we’re making any political point,” Jonny said, “but I do understand that as soon as you do anything in that part of the world it becomes political, even if it’s just artistic. Actually, possibly especially if it’s artistic.”
Preview Jarak Qaribak with the LP’s second track, “Ashufak Shay,” featuring Rashid al-Najjar below:
Jarak Qaribak Tracklist:
- Djit Nishrab (feat. Ahmed Doma)
- Ashufak Shay (feat. Rashid Al Najjar)
- Taq ou-Dub (feat. Nour Freteikh)
- Leylet Hub (feat. Mohssine Salaheddine)
- Ya Mughir al-Ghazala (feat. Karrar Alsaadi)
- Ahibak (feat. Safae Essafi)
- Ya ‘Anid Ya Yaba (feat. Lynn A.)
- Lhla Yzid Ikthar
