Eyal El Wahab's El Khat & The Yemeni Orchestra perform a version of Ayoob Tarish's “Matar Matar” in Tel Aviv-Jaffa
Musician and bandleader Eyal El Wahab established The Yemeni Orchestra in 2022 with the aim of preserving the folk music of his home country through new orchestral arrangements, as demonstrated in this reimagining of Ayoob Tarish's song “Matar Matar” (“Rain Rain”). The formation of the orchestra is only one of several strands of El Wahab's musical output, which often simultaneously highlights and reimagines Yemeni music, sometimes distorting the traditional sound through an experimental lens by introducing handmade instruments.
In an interview in The Wire 469 El Wahab tells Clive Bell that the title for his touring band El Khat's latest album Albat Alawi Op 99 is also intended to celebrate a singer from his home country, Faisal Alawi. “He looks very much like my grandfather,” says El Wahab, “so there’s an emotional attachment for me. In the West they don’t hear about these places, and this music, they stay under the radar. I wanted to give a little more attention to Yemeni music from those days. The sound is not fancy, not rich, but it’s unique and it touches your heart.”
In this video El Khat & The Yemeni Orchestra perform together at Tel Aviv-Jaffa venue Teder in June 2022. El Khat play five UK dates in March.
Read El Wahab's interview in full in The Wire 469. Subscribers can also read the article online via the digital library.
