Well...if you gotta have your dose of bastardized Beatles ("Yesterday") to get the other, more unfamiliar Middle Eastern stuff down the gullet, I suppose this is one way to do it. The aoud-picking here was delightful, with a fine backup ensemble, but the producers or artists apparently couldn't resist pandering to the suspected pop instincts of the typical buyer, so we get a couple of little pitches to the lower common denominator to lengthen our attention span. I really liked the aoud playing here; it was lively, authentic, virtuosic at points, and this really was a fun album for someone just becoming aware of Middle Eastern music in its more lively incarnations.

I loved this CD when it first came out on tape many years ago. George Mgrdichian has a very distinct, pristine style of playing which I can usually recognise even when he is playing as part of another group.