Omar Metioui — lute, arabic lute, voice
Said Belcadi — voice, tar, darbuka
Hassan Ajyar — voice, choir
Eduardo Paniagua — qanun
David Mayoral — zarb
Ahmed Al-Gazi — rabab
Noureddine Acha — nay
Abdessalam El Amrani Boukhobza — tar, fuqara
Said El Ouerdighi — fuqara (sonorous respiration)
El Kabit Touhiar — fuqara (sonorous respiration)
Montasser Touihar — fuqara (sonorous respiration)
Mohammed Dahdouh — fuqara (sonorous respiration)
Abdelaziz Dahdouh — fuqara (sonorous respiration)
The tracks on this CD are a mixture of solo oud and traditional Andalusian pieces for ensemble, and it also features the oud players Said Belcadi and Hassan Ajyar. As well as his normal oud, Omar Metioui uses the Tunisian ud 'arbi (on track 12), which has four pairs of gut strings tuned to fifths and is played with an eagle quill.
Eduardo Paniagua said "Omar Metioui, with his introspection in the style of the old masters from the beginning of this century, is giving back to the lute the importance which this instrument had historically in Hispano-Arab music." Indeed, playing of this calibre makes one wonder why the instrument lost any ground at all.
Omar Metioui was born in Tangiers, Morocco in 1962. He initially studied pharmacology in Brussels, before returning to Tangiers to study solmization, Andalusi singing and oud at the Conservatory of Music and Dance. Between 1976 and 1980 he sang and played the oud with El Arbi s-Siyyar, the main Andalusi orchestra in Tangiers. He is currently first lute with the Conservatory orchestra, and continues to perform throughout Europe and the Arab world.