Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa share the song that began Jarak Qaribak

Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa have shared a live video of “Taq ou-Dub”, three weeks before their album Jarak Qaribak is out on World Circuit on 9 June. The old Lebanese song was the first thing they recorded for the project, and the pair say the whole album grew from it.

Nour Freteikh, whom Pitchfork describes as Palestinian, sings it. She first recorded her vocal from afar, and only later did the three meet to rehearse it and play it together. The pair say they are proud to have made a song, and a friendship, with such a remarkable musician as Nour.¹

It follows “Ashufak Shay”, out when the album was announced on 13 April, and a live video of “Ya Mughir al-Ghazala” on 27 April, sung by the Iraqi singer Karrar Alsaadi. Greenwood plays bass, guitar and drum machine in that video, Tassa sings and plays guitar and bass, and the band around them has qanun, oud, riq, darbuka, brass and four backing singers. Tassa met Alsaadi in Vienna, and says the album's idea of crossing borders began with that meeting. This song originates from Yemen, my father’s country of origin, and Kiri (Karrar) is from Baghdad, my mother’s hometown.³