ABSTRACT
I first meet Raed Yassin in the bar De Prague in Hamra on August 2, 2005. It is dif cult to start the conversation because Raed is not a big talker—at least when he does not know people. Mazen Kerbaj had told me to contact him: “Raed Yassin lived in West Beirut during the Civil War, in the other part of the city. And still he was listening to exactly the same music as I did. We were really amazed, when we met the first time in 2001.” Yassin and Kerbaj have worked together closely since then. However, Raed is more interested in Arabic music than his friend. He tried to involve oud player Fahed Riachi, who lives in Europe today, into the circle of free improvised music because, as he says, “the oud is part of my culture.”
