Mazin Abu Sayf

"I was five years old, when my uncle brought home an accordion. At the time I could sing 'London Bridge' and I found out that I could transfer the melody onto the accordion. This is how everything started. I began composing a few songs for school shows. At the age of twelve I entered national competitions for junior composers in Syria and won first prize twice. I tried to play other instruments and found it easy. Today I play accordion, oud, nay, piano, keyboards and percussion. After graduating as an engineer in Syria, I moved to England. Here I decided to develope my musical skills so I could make a living as a musician. Ever since my first musician jobs in London I had the dream to fuse Eastern with Western music. In the meantime I had the opportunity to play with Terry Hall and Mushtaq. We combined Eastern music with folk and other styles. We performed live concerts and appeared on TV and radio. Then I joined the group 'Nara' with musicians from many nations working together on projects with Abdullah Chhadeh. But my deepest heart-felt dream is to introduce classical Eastern music to the world. Although I have my own compositions I would like to share with you the music that inspired my musical life. Bashir Abdel 'Aal and I share this point of inspiration, so we began working together to communicate to you our background, love, passion and emotion born in the musical tradition of the East, but in new arrangements which we hope will be better understood in the West. We hope that this CD will be part of a series to introduce to you the incredibly rich culture of Eastern music." Mazin Abu Sayf (from the booklet of the CD: Bashir Abdel 'Aal "Modern Bellydance From Lebanon" 2006 ARC Music)