Sufi Trance of the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus

The Al-Kindi instrumental ensemble was founded in 1983 by French musician, musicologist and qanun virtuoso Julien Jâlal Eddine Weiss, who died prematurely in 2015. Along with his fellow musicians - from Damascus, Ziad Kadi Amin (ney, reed elute); from Aleppo, Mohamad Qadri Dalal (oud); and, from Alexandria, Adel Shams El Din (riqq, cymbalette percussion) - they made Al-Kindi one of the finest musical ensembles, known for the rigour of it's work and the excellence of it's interpretation of the Arab classical repertoire. For more than thirty years, the Al-Kindi Ensemble has been exploring the richness and universality of Arab classical music and culture in the hope of fostering the positive idea of peaceful coexistence between peoples. Just like Western classical music ensembles, the Al-Kindi Ensemble has met and collaborated with the best singers and musicians from Syria, Iraq and Turkey, with whom they have performed on the world's greatest musical stages including Carnegie Hall in New York, touring all over Europe, from the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris to the Arab World Institute, at the Sacred Music Festival in Fez and at the Baalbeck Festival. The war in Syria, with it's forced exile, closed borders, and the premature death of Julien Weiss in January 2015, have strongly impacted the group's activities but it has adapted, with changes of territory for some, and the arrival of new musicians including Khadija El-Afritt on qanun.