ALBUM REVIEW: Faten Kanaan – Afterpoem

Fire Records

Released: 24.02.23

Bewitchingly beautiful instrumental album from a modern classical composer based in Brooklyn but drawing on European and Middle Eastern roots. Minimalistic, synthesised, whirling repetitive patterns are structured into thirteen melodic pop song-length tracks. From the whimsy of the darting Snowing or the quirky, creative Castling and the mysterious weaving, dancing computerised voices of Votive or the cascading keyboards of Cascando, we are enveloped in worlds within worlds.

Never cold steel computerised but warm, organic and enriching. This fifth album by Faten Kanaan is highly accessible, expressive, hypnotic and cinematic. Trapped narratives are released through the ebb and flow of each song, rippling like pebbles thrown in a pond leaving indelible impressions like the after taste of an ancient poem. Compelling.