Megarbane Charif & Ali

Tirakat

Label: Habibi Funk Records

Genre: Freestyle / Nu Jazz / Funk / Afro

Availability

LP €29.99

Dispatched within 5-10 working days

Ali join Lebanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Charif Megarbane for Tirakat, a meeting point between Jakarta and Beirut rooted in long histories of exchange across the Indian Ocean.

Ali’s 1970s-inflected psychedelic funk and Orkes Melayu grooves sit naturally alongside Megarbane’s jazz, library and Mediterranean-leaning arrangements. The connection runs deeper than genre: both draw on shared melodic language shaped by centuries of movement between Indonesia and the Arab world.

Arabic musical forms filtered into Gambus, Qasidah and Orkes Melayu, later informing dangdut and wider Indonesian popular music. Tirakat reflects that slow accumulation rather than forcing fusion. Western instruments are played through Indonesian and Lebanese sensibilities, honouring inherited forms while sounding firmly present.