Mabrouk Band

After chatting over a latté and croissant in a Tel-Aviv café (which looks Parisians under an unprecedented heat wave), and before lunch at Abu-Hassan's hummus joint in Jaffa, Charlie Sabach and Ran Bagno sit in the studio and sweat-out mixed style materials into a patient computer. Charlie's oud playing is spiced with Moroccan, Druze, Balkan, Arab flavors and any other tastes the Middle East cuisine might possess. Between afternoon Turkish coffee and evening Viennese schnitzel on the beach, the beat ingredients for the new track are all laid out for cooking - both Arab and western, acoustic and electronic. The westward facing horizon feeds the room with electronic European rhythms. The sun sets into the Mediterranean Sea. The Tel-Aviv Humidity sticks to every living being. Yalla! Time to chill-out with mint-tea. You could just imagine the sweet scent of nargila smoke filling the room at the end of a day's work. Charlie Sabach and Ran Bagno try to look beyond the conflict in their country and take a glance at what this cultural mixture embraces. Their work corresponds with influences from all the cultures in their region which create a colorful scene in all fields of life: from food and clothing to music. Their music maintains a dialogue with world music by creating intoxicating tunes smoothly blended in addictive electronic beats full of passion.