Anouar Brahem - oud, Barbaros Erköse - clarinet, Lassad Hosni - bendir, darbouka. Tunisian oud virtuoso Anouar Brahem counts as one of ECM's most important "discoveries" of the last decade. After his highly successful trans-cultural recording "Thimar", he returns to a more purely Middle Eastern music on "Astrakan Café", with the trio that has been his first priority for several years. The improvisational exchanges between Brahem, clarinettist Barbaros Erköse and percussionist Lassad Hosni are exceptionally fluid, and the atmospheres that they create by turns mysterious, hypnotic, dramatic...