Rafet studied music from a young age. Tertiary education brought about further teachings in jazz. Growing up in the family village of Miniara (North Lebanon) saw to an inquiry into maqamat and traditional arabic musics post study. After composing for multiple ensembles and performing in various projects over the years, Rafet settles into his own artistry with ‘You Are In The Embrace of The History’. This body of work is one that is personal; sighting connection to a land, spirit and devotion to a holy other.
You Are In the Embrace of The History delivers longing with grace, a realisation of ancestral memory with the eloquence of an internal knowing. Finding home in the cradle of the poem, a universal affirmation lies deep within an irregular heartbeat.
The listener is offered an invitation to enter into the vista of expansive harmonic voicings, anticipating resolution. The work is edged by expressions of spiritual jazz and tempered by the scope of ambient musics.
Rafet’s offering has the humility to pose questions (the illumination and the ecstasy). In the Dead Sea, there are no fish.
