Keys to Friendship

This is an album with quite a story behind it. The Syrian musician Aeham Ahmad played piano in the refugee camp of Yarmouk, situated just outside the city of Damascus, risking his life to inspire hope and a semblance of joy in others. He later made the journey, as so many thousands have, to Europe and a dream of peace. In his new home he met German pianist Edgar Knecht who, with his trio, have made a name interpreting folk songs from Germany. Together they have produced Keys to Friendship, with two pianos, double bass and percussion.

Ahmad provides vocals and the two pianists share songwriting credits with, in Knecht's case, some pieces having been recorded previously. The better tracks, such as ‘Nami’, have a subtle insistence in their long, pleading lines that Ahmad's voice strains to its limits to express. The arrangements avoid a clash of styles and, although some of the compositions lack personality, as if the Syrian and German characters somehow cancelled each other out, the album as a whole hangs together. It's the record of an unexpected friendship and of a remarkable journey, which has surely not ended yet.