Arco Iris

Personnel: Amina Alaoui (vocals, daf); José Luis Montón (flamenco guitar); Eduardo Miranda (mandolin); Sofiane Negra (oud); Saïf Alah Ben Abderrazak (violin); Idriss Agnel (percussion).Liner Note Author: Amina Alaoui.Recording information: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano (04/2010).Photographers: Akwa Betote; Daniel Vass.Translators: George Miller ; Tyler Fisher.Arranger: Amina Alaoui.Amina Alaoui is a vocalist, pianist, and composer steeped in the history of Andalusian music, the fusion of Arab, Spanish, Persian, and Portuguese styles that evolved in the courts of Moorish Spain in the ninth century. Her intent, stated poetically in the album's liner notes, is to use the fusion of styles that flourished centuries ago as the foundation for a modern music without boundaries. Arco Iris translates as rainbow, a metaphor for the way the musics of the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Africa blend into and color each other. Alaoui, and the five musicians that accompany her, produce a