"The Astounding Eyes of Rita" is excellent and highly recommended. One of my current favorites. If you don't mind compilations, "Vague" an ECM import of Brahem's music is a good choice. I just ordered a copy.
Edorr thanks for the suggestion, actually Rabih is the next one on my list of oud players as I read about him when searching information on Anouar! I will start with the album you say!
Russell, yes "Astounding Eyes of Rita" is one of the best.
Do not forget to listen to the Tsabropoulos album "Chants, Hymns & Dances", it is pure magic, a journey to a different world!!
I pretty much own every Brahem and Abou Khalil album so let me chime in.
Rabih Abou Khalil has a lot of different albums out, which can be generally loosely described as oriental / jazz fusion. Oriental melodic and rhytmic signature (I am not a musician clearly).
The astounding eyes of Rita is more traditional oriental, as are my other two Brahem favorites that I mentioned. In "The astounding eyes of Rita" Brahem goes back to the moods of his earliest albums.
Rabih Abou Khalil also has one very traditional oriental sounding album out called Nafas (GET IT - Great stuff), while Brahem's most Jazzy album is Khomsa.
While we are on subject, there is another ECM favourite which is a must have and you are sure to like if you like any of the brahem stuff. This album is "Making Music" by Zakir Hussain.
By the way, the reason some folks picked up a Brahem album may be because "The astounding eyes of Rita" was record of the month in Stereophile a while ago. I first heard him (Barzakh) in an oriental furniture store in London and was immediately hooked.
The third giant of the Oud (and guitar) worth mentioning is Thierry Robin. I never quite got into him as much as Brahem and Abou Khalil, but he does oriental / world fusion, and his best known album "Gitane" earned 4.5 starts on allmusic.com. Worth checking out.
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