I was never a fan of Arabic music even though I was passionate about music and practiced it in all kinds as a child. Sadly, our media does not portray true music. This is why most of the Arabic music I was exposed to never caught my attention.
Until one day, I came across Ahmad Al Arabi by Marcel Khalife along with Oumeima El Khalil. That was when I realized that I knew nothing about this great genuine art.
After that, I naturally developed an obsession with Arabic music... and I soon founded Fayha Choir in Tripoli in 2003. I discovered that Arabic music was great enough to compete with Western music, better yet to surpass it. It was then that the choir’s main goal has been to develop Arabic music without changing it, and to introduce it to the world in the form of Acapella.
Ever since, the deeper I delve into the world of Arabic music, the fonder I become of it, especially with our new album Sawt. Sawt highlights the features of Arabic music through its musical context, various scales, rhythms and phonetics.
On the other hand, when we listen to Sawt, we feel like Edward Torikian knows exactly what is going on in Marcel Khalife’s mind who in turn creates captivating melodies from poetic masterpieces.
All of this makes Sawt a special collaboration, especially being performed with the flow of Oumeima El Khalil’s emotions, along with Fayha Choir’s voices.
Our work was not easy. There was a big challenge to perform this, given that some Arabic consonants are neither musical nor easy to pronounce in Acapella. It was also a challenge to maintain the spirituality of the Arabic scales and three-quarter tones in polyphonic music, but we finally succeeded in converting these challenges into special features; and this is what reveals the greatness of Arabic music.
Two years after the consistent work, I believe that Sawt will be a historical album, since there has never been an album where polyphonic arrangements were used in Arabic scales as acapella, in addition to it being recorded live.
To conclude, I must state that I consider myself very lucky to be in a time when people such as Marcel Khalife, Oumeima El Khalil and Edward Torikian exist, and to have these young singers joining me faithfully on the journey of Fayha Choir.