Hailed as “intensely soulful (The New York Times)” and “spellbinding (The New Yorker),” Syrian-born, Brooklyn-based composer/clarinetist Kinan Azmeh has announced the February 28th, 2025 release of his 14th album Live in Berlin (Dreyer Gaido), for which he reconvened his New York-based genre-bending CityBand quartet featuring guitarist Kyle Sanna, bassist Josh Myers, and drummer John Hadfield.

Influenced by the music of Azmeh’s homeland of Syria, Live in Berlin captures the arc of personal and collective anger, frustration, sadness and hope felt in the face of atrocities.

Conceived during the 2011 Syrian uprising, the album presents six of Azmeh’s own deeply personal compositions (in addition to a piece by Kyle Sanna) recorded in front of a live audience 10 years later on the Pierre Boulez Saal stage in Berlin.

Celebrating almost two decades together, Kinan Azmeh CityBand has received praise from critics and audiences alike, for its virtuosic and high-energy performances. Reaching a balance between classical, jazz and world music, this Arab-Jazz quartet has been wowing audiences worldwide.

1. The Queen Commanded
2. The Translator
3. Daraa
4. Jisreen
5. Dance (from The Fence, The Rooftop and The Distant Sea)
6. Galileo Galilee
7. Wedding

This incredibly impassioned, wholly rich in both sound and conceivement new recording opens on the steely, yet breathy silent ambiance of The Queen Commanded and then we get the furtively playful The Translator, the dutifully stoic, almost ethereal Daraa and then comes the veritably glistening Jisreen.

Along next is the flirtatiously exciting 13-minute opus Dance (from The Fence, The Rooftop and The Distant Sea) which is itself followed seamlessly by the cinematically-hued Galileo Galilee, the music coming to an all-too-soon close on the frantically driven, joyfully sculpted, 13-minute musical wonderment Wedding.

Dance - Kinan Azmeh and CityBand Live in New York at The Greene Space [Official Video]

www.kinanazmeh.com