It has been 10 years since Palestinian singer Reem Kelani released her debut album, Sprinting Gazelle – Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and the Diaspora, a collection of resistance poetry by the likes of Mahmoud Darwish, Salma Khadra and Rashid Husain and then put to music.
These themes of homeland and identity also carry over onto, Live at the Tabernacle, a compilation album from Kelani's 2012 concert in London which was released last month.
It includes a detailed booklet and captures Kelani's live recordings of several songs from Sprinting Gazelle, but also her ongoing project inspired by the late Egyptian composer Sayyid Darwish.
In one of the stronger tracks on the live album, 1932 (For Sayyid Darwish), we hear a beautifully vivid piano intro by Bruno Heinen, that eventually becomes backed by Tamer Abu Ghazaleh's masterful melancholic oud, to create a tense, layered soundscape.
Live at the Tabernacle also has many theatrical moments, particularly in songs like The Preachers' Anthem, also composed by Sayyid Darwish. With lyrics written by playwright and satirist, Badi' Khayri, Kelani recites lyrics that describe a group of men rejoicing after the armistice in Egypt in 1918, when many experienced a fleeting euphoria, believing that Egypt would become independent immediately.
When it comes to the live album, this spectacle is exactly what dilutes the overall productions. Many of the songs feel noisy and are hard to follow, making the album as a whole unable to stand alone as a great record. But there are some decent songs, particularly the ones where Ghazaleh’s oud becomes more central. In the end, the only real problem with Kelani’s live album, is exactly that: to get it, you need to see it.
Maha El Nabawi is a freelance journalist based in Cairo.
