"Following her outstanding performance with the cross-cultural, century-spanning ensemble of Norwegian keyboardist/composer Jon Balke's Siwan (ECM, 2009), it's no surprise that the German label has tapped into the Moroccan singer for an album of her own ... Backed by an outstanding multinational quintet that, in its reliance on acoustic instruments - violin, oud, flamenco guitar, mandolin and percussion - feels utterly timeless in the 21st century, Arco Iris pays sincere reverence to Alaoui's own roots. Born in Fez, she first studied Gharnati - a musical variant originating in Al-Andalus, stemming from Moroccan and Algerian traditions - but by assimilating a variety of cultural markers both near and far, Arco Iris possesses a much broader reach, a successful attainment of Alaoui's assertion, "I am an artist of the present. I abstain from simply copying the styles of the past" ... Alaoui - a singer whose greatest potential is always kept simmering just below the surface-delivers, throughout this compelling recording, with equal measures grace, emotive power and phrasing filled with evocative implication".
