“Dirar Kalash is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from Palestine, currently based in Berlin. I first came across him when John Tilbury recommended Dirar for a recording session at his house in the seaside town of Deal, Kent. I wanted to record John playing his clavichord, an extremely quiet precursor of the harpsichord, which he had recently acquired. We ended up recording a great trio of clavichord, electronics (John Lely) and Dirar playing oud – the first ever outing for that particular combination of instruments, I believe. The trio was accompanied by seagulls and various other environmental sounds peculiar to Deal. We managed to record a whole CD of material in a single day, and the resulting album – Seaside – was released on Another Timbre in 2016. Its unusual soundworld generated several excellent reviews, and the disc has nearly sold out. As well as oud, Dirar plays electronics and piano, both extremely well, and I look forward to hearing his work on electronics in this new performance with John Tilbury, who will be back at the piano on this occasion as his clavichord never leaves Deal.” – Simon Reynell