Beyond the Sky is the third collaboration between producer, composer and guitarist Brian Keane and renowned Turkish multi-instrumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek. This recording signals the beginning of Omar Faruk's "unity in diversity" approach to music, a philosophy and aesthetic that expands and evolves with each cross-cultural encounter.
Armenians Ara Dinkjian, master of the oud (Arabic lute and precursor to the guitar), and percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan (whose impressive resume includes performances with Al DiMeola, Chet Baker and Arthur Blythe), along with Turkey's Hassan Issikut on the kanun (a Middle Eastern cousin of the dulcimer), join Omar Faruk and Brian to form a stellar quintet of world class musicians. The groundbreaking collaboration between these visionary artists predates the current popular explosion of multi-culti fusion by a decade.
Beyond the Sky builds on an original concept born in 1987 with the release of Suleyman The Magnificent and continuing with the follow-up, Fire Dance. The music, characterized by its energy, feelings of immense spirituality, and impeccable execution, is truly cross-cultural and forward thinking, at once abandoning and embracing musical traditions, and earning Beyond the Sky status as a modern world music classic.
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