El Khat: an apt name, since this group’s music changes your perception of time and space and causes euphoria, just like the Khat plant which people have been chewing in Ethiopia and Yemen for centuries. Sounds of the past and present played on instruments from all over the place come together in a long suite with hallucinatory touches. However, despite this heterogeneous feel, the record has a rather specific origin. It was Eyal El Wahab’s idea, a former cellist for the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra, based in Tel Aviv, who has since left in search of his Yemeni roots. Traditional songs, a vintage repertoire from the 50s to 70s and personal compositions are reinterpreted with his fellow quartet members: one from Morocco, one from Poland and one from Iraq. At some points the guitars feel like they’ve been taken from a psychedelic Californian jam session, at other points the piano brings to mind an international hotel bar from the start of the 20th century, and elsewhere brass instruments transport us to the Balkans or Ethiopia. Additionally, there are some electronic textures, percussive parts played with kitchen utensils and surprising interventions from instruments made by Wahab himself, who doubles up as a carpenter. His singing reveals a strong Middle Eastern identity, but the colours that accompany him suggest a peaceful region where borders would be pointless. © Benjamin MiNiMuM/Qobuz