Anouar Brahem - oud
Anja Lechner - cello
Django Bates - piano
Mats Eilertsen - double bass
After the Last Sky – a line taken from a poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who asks “Where do the birds fly, after the last sky?” – becomes the title of the latest project by composer and lutenist Anouar Brahem , released on the album of the same name for the ECM record label in 2025. After a program called Blue Maqams , in which he was inspired by Arabic tonal modes, makams, Anouar Brahem returned with delicate music for oud, cello, piano and double bass, subtly reflecting on Darwish’s metaphysical question and its echoes in our time. In his work, including this new program, Brahem draws inspiration from the traditional modes of Arabic music, while also connecting with wider influences and finding inspiration in different cultures. In this program, Brahem adds a cello to the trio for oud, piano and double bass, creating a quartet in which the cello often plays the leading role.
Anouar Brahem's program After the Last Sky can be seen as part of a wider literary-cultural continuum that, as essayist and journalist Adam Shatz points out, connects music with experiences of Palestinian history, exile, memory and identity. The same verse by Mahmoud Darwish about forty years ago served Edward Said as the title for his book After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives , a meditation on life in exile and the Palestinian experience. In Brahem's work, this literary and cultural trace continues, but acquires a new, extremely contemporary resonance: although the music was created primarily as an abstract and emotional expression, Shatz recognizes in it the echo of current conflicts, especially the disaster and war in Gaza, as well as issues of displacement, belonging, identity and survival. As Shatzu tells Brahem, after the events in Gaza he began to experience the world "through the filter of that tragedy", so the experience of the Palestinian people does not appear in the album as a literal political message, but as an emotional and memory layer that permeates the music. Titles like The Sweet Oranges of Jaffa , The Eternal Olive Tree , Endless Wandering and Edward Said's Reverie thus become a kind of link between musical expression, literature and collective memory, while After the Last Sky simultaneously speaks of loss and exile, but also of perseverance, dignity and the possibility of preserving the experience of a people through art.
The main source of musical material for Brahem is the Arabic makams, more than fifty Arabic musical scales, which “fascinate him with their melodic richness and the possibility of integrating them into a contemporary musical context. They offer an infinite terrain for experimentation.” As a composer, Brahem is “excited by the idea of juxtaposing these ancient modal structures with the harmony that comes from jazz, creating a dialogue between the past and the present, between cultures and styles.” These ideas come to life in the duet of oud and double bass that “beats like a heart” under the oud melody, in the composition The Sweet Oranges of Jaffa (Sweet Jaffa oranges) , or three pianos, a cello and a bass, whose lines intertwine in the composition Endless Wandering (Endless wandering), while in a fast composition Dancing Under the Meteorites (Dancing under meteors) all combine in the ethereal, surreal rhythm of tango. The sonorous harmonies of the cello and piano form the dominant soundscape in the composition Remembering Hind (Remembering Hind), which brings a musical lament for a young victim of war. A contemplative composition, full of inner tension, Awake (Awake) opens the program, which also includes an intimate duet of oud and cello, In the Shade of Your Eyes (In the shade of your eyes) as well as a kind of "anthem of remembrance" for oud and piano, Never Forget (Never forget.). Atmospheric Night (Night) is part of Brahem's earlier opus, from the album Blue Maqams, while the composition Talwin from an old album Thimar from 1988 features a simple singing melody, which – as the title of the piece suggests – is “colored” with different shades of jazz harmony and instrumental colors. The central piece of the program, which gives the name to the entire project, After the Last Sky, is a kind of melancholic fantasy, in which the lines of all four instruments intertwine – the ornamented line of the oud with the singing cello, while the piano and double bass discreetly complement their lines, following the inner "rhythm of the heart", which can be heard by every individual in the audience through the veil of instrumental harmony.
- Zrinka Matic
Anouar Brahem
For almost forty-five years, Anouar Brahem, a Tunisian composer and oud master, has been creating music that is at once rooted in the highly sophisticated, ancient culture of his ancestors and distinctly contemporary in its global ambition. Anouar appears in many cross-cultural encounters, but he also develops entirely new connections and similarities between styles and worlds whose potential closeness had never been considered before, until he discovered them. For him, it was (and still is) a question of highlighting the ancient Arab tradition of learned music, which his oud represents in all its subtlety, not only by contrasting his instrument with contemporary jazz, but also with the sophisticated harmonies of the erudite Western compositional tradition and the refined forms of other ancient cultural traditions from the Orient.
His 12 albums for ECM, a record label that has been praised by both audiences and international critics alike (among them Astrakan Café , Thimar , Le Pas du Chat Noir , Blue Maqams , After the Last Sky , etc.), together with the triumphant success of his evocative music in concerts held in prestigious halls around the world, as well as his musical collaborators, including an extraordinary selection of famous jazz musicians such as Jan Garbarek, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, are enough to confirm Anouar's place as one of the most fascinating and inspiring artists in the contemporary world of instrumental music.
His sensitive, yet rigorous music constantly redefines an ingeniously complex universe of poetry and culture, constantly maintaining a balance between discretion and sensuality, nostalgia and contemplation.
Anja Lechner
Strings magazine describes Anja Lechner as “one of the most gifted cellists in the world.” She is known for her extraordinary versatility, moving between classical, contemporary and improvised music. She has performed worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborator with major orchestras and artists of various musical genres. Composers such as Arvo Pärt, Tigran Mansurian and Dino Saluzzi have written works for her.
A longtime artist of the record company ECM, she has released more than twenty albums, including collaborations with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, guitarist Pablo Márquez and pianist François Couturier.
During 2024/25 she released a new solo album with works by Bach, Abel and Hume, toured with Pablo Márquez, performing Schubert, and continued her duet work with François Couturier. In the spring of 2025, she embarks on a major European tour as a member of the new Anouar Brahem Quartet.
Django Bates
Born in 1960 in Beckenham (Kent, England).
Django is a founding member of the band Loose Tubes and was one of the leading figures of the European jazz renaissance of the 1980s. He performed with Michael Brecker, Bill Bruford, Jack DeJohnette and Sidsel Endresen. In 1997, Django received the Danish Jazzpar Award , dubbed the "Nobel Prize of Jazz".
During the pandemic, Django created a cycle of compositions for solo piano that he is currently performing.
"As nearly perfect as anything can be." — Richard Williams, The Blue Moment, January 5, 2024.
In 2019, the IVORS Academy honored Django with The IVORS Jazz Award , describing him as "a musical polymath and an exceptionally gifted composer, who has been at the heart of the British jazz scene for the past 40 years."
Mats Eilertsen
Born in 1975, he is a Norwegian double bassist and composer and one of the key figures of Scandinavian jazz. He graduated from the Trondheim Musikkonservatorium and is known for his work with bands such as The Source , Food and the Tord Gustavsen Ensemble . He regularly collaborates with the record label ECM, for which he has released several critically acclaimed albums.
His music is characterized by a lyrical and experimental approach to the double bass, combining sophistication and depth of sound. In 2022, he received the Buddy Award , the highest honor in Norwegian jazz.
Location: Peristyle, Split.
Pupils, students, pensioners and existing subscribers of the Croatian House Split receive a 20% discount on individual tickets exclusively at the Croatian House box office. Discounts are not cumulative and do not apply to festival tickets.
You can purchase the Peristil Vibrez Pass for all three events at Peristil here.
Croatian House Split ensures an accessible and inclusive experience for all visitors. Persons with disabilities, persons with reduced mobility, and persons requiring assistance are provided with appropriate accessible seating at all concerts and performances of this year's Vibrez Festival.
After the Last Sky
