Kamilya Jubran is a Palestinian, Paris-based vocalist-songwriter-oud player seeking an original musical path between Arab traditions and contemporary elements. Sarah Murcia is a Franco-Spanish, Paris-based double bass and keyboard player-vocalist-composer, well-versed in jazz and contemporary music. Jubran and Murcia first met in 1998 when Murcia joined The Palestinian group Sabreen which Jubran led to record an album (على فين Ala Fein, Sabreen Productions, 2000) and a European tour.

Yokal (Saying So) is the third album of Jubran and Murcia, following the quintet albums Nhaoul’ (Accords Croisés, 2012) and Habka (Abalone Productions, 2017). Murcia studied the quarter-tones of oriental scales – maqams – and memorized the long labyrinthine sentences – of the oral tradition – that are common in Arabic traditional music. Yokal deepens and solidifies their deep affinity as Jubran and Murcia explore Jubran compositions based on prose poems. The album was recorded at Downtown Studio in Strasbourg in May 2024.

The album balances beautifully the distinct approaches of Jubran and Murcia. Jubran’s expressive vocals – in Arabic – her captivating, dramatic story-telling gift and her oud playing represent highly melodic and modal culture and horizontal thinking about her music. Murcia has a vertical approach to the music and she adds harmonies, colors (often with her bow) and strong, rhythmic drive. The timbral range of the double bass resonates beautifully with the oud and the two instruments enrich the complex, poetic music and texts, penned by Jubran, except for two texts by Lebanese poet Paul Chaoul and Moroccan poet Hassan Najmi. Yokal adds another refined dimension to the ongoing cross-genre and cross-cultural poetics of Jubran and Murcia, suggesting arresting and intimate music on the fringes of Arabic traditional music, contemporary music and improvised music,

Eyal Hareuveni

Kamilya Jubran (vocals, oud); Sarah Murcia (double bass)