The Al Andaluz Project group was formed in 2005 after the musicians of Estampie attended a concert by the Spanish band Aman Aman as part of the Jewish Culture Days in Munich. With the aim of reviving the music of the Jewish-Sephardic, Christian and Arabo-Andalusian cultures, as they were in Moorish-ruled Spain in peaceful and mutually beneficial coexistence, the band recorded four studio and one live album between 2006 and 2013 and played numerous concerts and festivals throughout Europe. The three singers Sigrid Hausen, Mara Aranda and Iman Kandoussi, each representing one of the three cultures, were always at the centre of the music. ‘The Songs of Iman Kandoussi’ is now the first thematic compilation of the repertoire of this extraordinary band, which focuses on the Arabo-Andalusian repertoire and centres around the Moroccan singer.

When talking about the musical culture of the Arab world in general or the Maghreb in particular (note: Maghreb refers to the areas of present-day Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia), the particular diversity of Arab music must be emphasized. The influence of Andalusian culture in this region is very great. Al-Andalus constituted in its day a culture superior to that of North Africa and to that of Northern Spain and the rest of Europe. For this reason, the Andalusian culture was able to impose itself on the minor cultures of the Maghreb. After the fall of the last Islamic kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, the Maghreb became the habitat for this flourishing culture.

It is not easy to talk about the music of Al-Andalus that developed in the medieval Iberian Peninsula, as we are dealing with a repertoire that spans a period of almost eight centuries. The vast majority of scholars agree that the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba was the period of greatest musical and cultural flourishing. While poetry was transmitted in writing, knowledge of music was passed on orally, and it was not until the 20th century that Arabic music was transcribed into Western musical notation. Interest in the music of Al-Andalus received a strong boost when the Kharja, which are poetic-musical compositions written in an Arabic, Romance, or Hebrew dialect, were discovered in the mid-20th century. This was proof that the society of Al-Andalus was multilingual. This album contains some pieces from this musical and poetic heritage of Al-Andalus that have spread throughout the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, becoming a musical tradition that has endured to this day.

Music has always had the power and ability to bring different cultures and people together to spread a message of peace to the world, and there has hardly been a time when such a message was not urgently needed. Accompanied by musicians from Morocco, Spain and Germany, The Songs of Iman Kandoussi is a portrait of a great singer that reminds us that cooperation, mutual respect and cultural diversity are the basis for peace and shared development.