Raed Yassin - Phantom Orchestra 2xLP

Crafted from solo recordings of 42 top-notch improviser musicians mostly drawn from Berlin’s multi-layered experimental scene, the monumental Phantom Orchestra project by Raed Yassin is finally getting released on Morphine Records. More than 1000 minutes of source material, recorded at the Morphine Raum during the fall of 2021, is distilled into a cogent work marked by a dazzling display of editing and blending, and packed into a double LP containing 7 “movements” of the Phantom Orchestra composition. The Lebanese composer, musician and visual artist Raed Yassin has built a career straddling artistic mediums and communities, his devotion to improvisation, his connection to experimental electronic music, and his interest in the archive distinguishing a progressive impulse rooted in historic exploration. In 2020 Morphine Records released his wildly ambitious Live in Sharjah, made by a kaleidoscopic expansion of Praed, his duo with clarinetist Paed Conca. He resumes his interest in large-scale projects with Phantom Orchestra, conceived during the pandemic when most European improvisers were forced to redirect their energies into solo work,

Each set of the Phantom Orchestra’s solos was cut on a Dubplate, ready to be performed on 12 turntables routed to a six-channel setup, to create a unified and breathtaking composition from the spontaneous material. The resulting material was then edited and prepared to be cut on a Double LP format, marshalling a staggering variety of improvised footage into an air-tight collage that locates abstract consonance, stunning sonic rhymes, and unusual harmonies without shutting out the sort of exhilarating collisions and fraught tensions inherent in collaborative improvisations. With this final stage of the composition, Yassin offers a vibrant testimony to the diversity of Berlin’s community of improvisers, to say nothing of his own refined artistic sensibility in achieving such a remarkable feat of blending so many contrasting voices into a truly unified piece of music. “For me it's about how to learn to be a community again,” he says.  “And how to  live in a world together again, which is a very difficult question for me.”  Musicians: Tomomi Adachi: Voice, ElectronicsKhyam Allami: OudBurkhard Beins : Amplified Cymbals, Floor TomTony Buck: Drums, PercussionAnthea Caddy: CelloLucio Capece: Slide Soprano Saxophone, ElectronicsAudrey Chen: Voice, SynthPaed Conca: ClarinetMarina Cyrino: Amplified FluteMarta De Pascalis: Synth, Tape loopsAxel Dörner: TrumpetMia Dyberg: Alto SaxophoneTony Elieh: Electric BassEmilio Gordoa: VibraphoneJudith Hamann: CelloCarl Ludwig Hubsch: TubaJD Zazie: Turntables, CDJsElena Kakaliagou: French HornMazen Kerbaj: Trumpet, Crackle SynthHans Koch: Soprano SaxophoneMatthias Koole: GuitarAndrew Lafkas: Double BassElisabetta Lanfredini: Voice, Tape RecordersMaurice Louca: Microtonal Electric GuitarMiya Masaoka: Dan BauMagda Mayas: ClavinetMatthias Muche: TromboneAndrea Neumann: Inside PianoHenrik Munkeby Nørstebø: TromboneRieko Okuda: PianoAndrea Parkins: Amplified Objects, ElectronicsJules Reidy: Acoustic GuitarIngrid Schmoliner: Prepared PianoMarie Takahashi: ViolaMichael Thieke: ClarinetAnaïs Tuerlinckx: Prepared PianoEls Vandeweyer: VibraphoneMichael Vorfeld: PercussionBiliana Voutchkova: Violin, VoiceUygur Vural: CelloUte Wassermann: Voice, ObjectsRaed Yassin : Double Bass, Zithers, ObjectsSolo sessions recorded at Morphine Raum in Berlin by Rabih Beaini and Emanuele Baratto in 2021.Composition recorded and edited at Morphine Raum in Berlin by Rabih Beaini and Raed Yassin in 2024Mixed by Rabih Beaini at Morphine RaumMastered by Rashad BeckerLiner notes by Peter MargasakDesigned by Lorenzo Mason StudioProduced by Raed Yassin and Rabih Beaini“This Album was published with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture – AFAC”