Badā by Farah Kaddour

A journey between the memorised, the improvised, and the composed.

Badā is the solo debut of Beirut's Farah Kaddour, a gifted buzuq player, researcher and educator. Kaddour works in folk and classical Arabic music in ensembles while also playing a vital role in modern Arabic ensemble Sanam, whose recent LP for Mais Um Discos was hailed by the Guardian as "blast[ing] to life with its mix of low-tuned guitar jams, industrial drums, and earthy vocals – an immersive collection of dark and spacious textures."
Kaddour was also a member of Mustafa Said's Asīl Ensemble between 2013-2018, a group dedicated to contemporary expressions of the Arab classical tradition, and appeared on their recording of Said's work Autism.
Since 2016, she has been a staple of Metro Al Madina's programming, playing several concerts and productions presented by the cherished Beirut cabaret, including Sheikh Imam, Discotheque Nana,and Sayyed Darwish. When Hans- Joachim Irmler of avant rock legends Faust performed at Beirut's boundary-pushing Irtijal festival in 2021, Kaddour was a part of his ensemble. She holds a masters degree in Musicology from Antonine University.

As one might expect from a musician with such an abundance of experience, Badā is a personal and utterly virtuosic statement that interleaves improvisations, and both traditional and original compositions. As one of the very few solo buzuq recordings, especially on vinyl —this album is also noteworthy for the fact that female players of the instrument are rare.
Kaddour's vision of the buzuq honors its deep roots while interrogating its sonic possibilities; her unique sound on it is colorful and reflects her varied collaborative history. She plays with a robust, driving urgency—often leaning into the instrument's percussive attack—but this intensity is tempered (and even disrupted) by her immaculate sense of space and dynamics. On the album's five improvised selections, Kaddour deftly moves between traditional and more modern modalities of playing, while always maintaining by her instrument's rootedness to the folk musics of the Levant.
Percussionist (and Oiseaux-Tempête collaborator) Ali El Hout, with whom she has performed in Asīl and the trio Tilt, joins her on two cuts, weaving his agile-fingered work on the Persian daf right into the buzuq's sonic core.

Farah Kaddour is a Beirut-based musician and researcher, who works mainly in the field of folk and classical Arabic music.
Kaddour attempts to rediscover and experiment the sound of the Buzuq by shedding light on the intersection between the identity of its sound, and the identity of a new, yet rooted music she presents both as a soloist and as a contributor to a range of diverse collaborations.