Broken Branches by Sean Shibe, Karim Sulayman

MUSICAL EXPLORATION OF DYNAMIC, IN-BETWEEN IDENTITIES

Tenor Karim Sulayman and guitarist Sean Shibe present Broken Branches, a conceptual album with music ranging from Dowland, Monteverdi, Britten, Rodrigo, Takemitsu, Harvey, and Chaker to traditional songs from the Middle East, scrutinizing the close cultural and musical ties between East and West. This musical exploration ties in with the artists’ personal experience of a dynamic, in-between identity, as they grew up in the West having ethnic roots in the East (Lebanon and Japan respectively). Broken Branches explores the wood of the guitar and its relatives, as well as the splintering of history known as diaspora.

Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist, and won a Grammy Award for Classical Solo Vocal in 2019. Multi-award-winning guitarist Sean Shibe brings a fresh and innovative approach to the traditional classical guitar, while also exploring contemporary music and repertoire for electric guitar. He continues his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE after his well-received Camino(2021) and Lost & Found (2022).

Tracklist

1.	Time Stands Still	5:30

2.	Sufi Dance	2:18

3.	Dalla porta d’oriente	3:24

4.	Sì dolce è’l tormento	4:27

5.	La mia turca	2:16

6.	La prima vez	3:58

7.	Lamma bada yatathanna	2:24

8.	El helwa di (after Ronnie Malley)	3:33

9.	Li Beirut after Joaquín Rodrigo	4:08

10.	A Butterfly in New York	4:43

11.	I. Wainscot Pond	3:29

12.	No. 1 The Big Chariot	2:00

13.	No. 2 The Old Lute	2:47

14.	No. 3 The Autumn Wind	1:25

15.	No. 4 The Herd-Boy	1:30

16.	No. 5 Depression	2:06

17.	No. 6 Dance Song	1:16

18.	Cucurrucucu paloma	4:47

Credits

released May 5, 2023

2023 Pentatone Music B.V.
Producers: Adrian Peacock; Kate Rockett
Recording Engineers: Dave Rowell; James Waterhouse

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