In Distant Roots, Jawa Manla explores the deep emotions she feels knowing she can no longer go home. Her life led her from Damascus through Cairo, Istanbul and Greece to Amsterdam, and this programme feels like an odyssey. The music flows from an intense desire for the landscapes she can still see in her heart, and for cherished memories from her childhood. The powerful and mesmerising Arabian poetry, a love for which she inherited from her poet father, is her most important inspiration. A story about loss and continuously shifting identities. 

Jawa Manla - oud & voice 
Elif Canfezâ Gündüz - Kemenche  
Adèle Viret - cello 
Pierre Hurty - drums 
Munzer Al Kaddour – Arabian poetry  

Picture: Aga Swiderskaa