ECM Records wrote:
..."Delightful new project, assembled by Tunisian oud master Brahem with producer Manfred Eicher. Combination of bass clarinet with oud suggests a link to Anouar’s "Thimar" trio, but this East/West line-up often feels closer to the more traditionally-inclined sounds of "Barzakh" or "Conte de l’Incroyable Amour". Klaus Gesing, from Norma Winstone’s Trio, and Bjorn Meyer, from Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, are both players with an affinity for musical sources beyond jazz, and they interact persuasively inside Brahem’s music. A dance of dark, warm sounds, urged onward by the darbouka and frame drum of Lebanaese percussionist Khaled Yassine. The album is dedicated to the memory of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish."...

Review:
Stereophile Recording of the Month, December 2009! Four stars for Performance and Five stars for Sonics!

Another gorgeous, evocative musical journey from oud master Anouar Brahem who delivers an album of warm, dark sounds and dancing, organic pulses. The music modulates between eastern and western cultures and disciplines – yet the compositions are unmistakably Brahem’s.

Anouar Brahem has developed into one of ECM’s most popular and commercially-successful artists.

"(Brahem) creates music that floats in space, evocatively calling up references to classical music, jazz, Arabic modes and the indefinable beauties of spontaneous improvisation." - Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times

"From the very first cut here, "The Lover of Beirut", Brahem's fascinating blend of traditional Eastern-flavored tonalities and his very jazz-like sense of free rhythms mix, in an astonishingly instinctual and intimate way, with Gesing's moody clarinet, their melodic lines at times doubling before breaking free to bend and swerve off into a melodic maze before slowly returning to their intricate Byzantine dance. The timbre of the clarinet is a perfect match for the oud's sonorities." - Robert Baird, Stereophile Magazine, Vol. 32, No. 12, pg 119

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 27. December 2009, 16:03

Anouar Brahem / The Astounding Eyes Of Rita

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH20NS10 Adapter: 2 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 7:44.34 | 0 | 34833
2 | 7:44.34 | 3:56.59 | 34834 | 52592
3 | 11:41.18 | 6:34.03 | 52593 | 82145
4 | 18:15.21 | 8:41.66 | 82146 | 121286
5 | 26:57.12 | 4:51.64 | 121287 | 143175
6 | 31:49.01 | 7:17.01 | 143176 | 175951
7 | 39:06.02 | 7:48.07 | 175952 | 211058
8 | 46:54.09 | 6:35.11 | 211059 | 240694


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename Z:\NetLab\Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes Of Rita (2009) {ECM 2075}\Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes Of Rita.wav

Peak level 96.6 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E10E461C
Copy CRC E10E461C
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 17) [EA56DFC9]
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 17) [14BFCB0E]
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 17) [CE7842AA]
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 16) [FDB5B7AD]
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 17) [A1C54FD1]
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 17) [0A7B0D18]
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 17) [FB731003]
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 16) [EA087227]

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

REM GENRE Jazz
REM DATE 2009
REM DISCID 6C0C8908
REM COMMENT ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
TITLE "The Astounding Eyes Of Rita"
FILE "Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes Of Rita.wv" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "The Lover Of Beirut"
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Dance With Waves"
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
INDEX 01 07:44:34
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Stopover At Djibouti"
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
INDEX 01 11:41:18
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "The Astounding Eyes Of Rita"
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
INDEX 01 18:15:21
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "Al Birwa"
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
INDEX 01 26:57:12
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "Galilee Mon Amour"
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
INDEX 01 31:49:01
TRACK 07 AUDIO
TITLE "Waking State"
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
INDEX 01 39:06:02
TRACK 08 AUDIO
TITLE "For No Apparent Reason"
PERFORMER "Anouar Brahem"
INDEX 01 46:54:09