Dhafer Youssef: Birds Canticum

This is a track from Birds Requiem, a 2013 album by the Tunisian composer, singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef.

This is how the album is described on his website:

Without forgetting the artistic identity that he forged through his experience and permanent search for sonorities, Dhafer Youssef carries on transcending genres. His quest leads him to clarinetist Hüsnü Şenlendirici and Kanun player, Aytaç Dogan. Dhafer Youssef’s voice accompanies Hüsnü Senlendirici‘s clarinet and Aytaç Dogan’s Kanun. Nils Petter Molvaer’s trumpet reinforces the atmospheric mood. Eivind Aarset’s guitar, Kristjan randalu’s Piano, Phil Donkin’s double bass and Chander Sardjoe ‘s drums create a jazzy atmosphere.

“Birds requiem” is the name of Dhafer Youssef’s new album, released on October 2013. This last opus is a very personal album that has been prepared at a turning point of the artist’s life, and at that moment, a return to the origins occurred-his but also the origins of music. 

The album, structured around the Birds Requiem suite, (“Birds Canticum”, “Fuga Hirundinum”, “Archaic Feathers” and “Whirling Birds Ceremony”), is constructed as music for an imaginative movie.

And if this sounds like the sort of thing you hear late at night on Radio 3, that's almost certainly where I came across it.