Anouar Brahem awarded 💫

 

Tunisian oud player and composer Anouar Brahem is the recipient of the 2026 “Ehrenpreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”, an honorary prize given out by the annual committee of the German Record Critics’ Award association and presented to outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions in the field of audio or video recording.

Over the years, Anouar’s close partnership with ECM has yielded many seminal recordings, including collaborations with Jan Garbarek, John Surman, Jack DeJohnette and many others. Brahem’s most recent recording, “After the Last Sky”, with Anja Lechner, Dave Holland and Django Bates, is also nominated for a Grammy, more specifically for the album’s liner essay by London Review Of Books editor, writer and journalist Adam Shatz. The album, recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in May 2024, was produced by Manfred Eicher.

 

From the jury statement:

“Anouar Brahem’s art unfolds in many ways: when he plays the short-necked oud, which originates from the Middle East, as a soloist or in harmony with other musicians, and in his encounters with non-European cultures. […] Brahem’s work crosses borders and defies conventional categories such as world music, ethnic music or jazz. He always follows his own idiosyncratic, experimental path, where Arabic and European sounds meet with improvisational influences from jazz. […] Anouar Brahem tirelessly interrogates the expressive possibilities of his instrument – in haunting explorations that we hope to hear from him for a long time to come.”

💫