A journey to the heart of spiritual history is perhaps the best description for the album From Minho to Euphrates by the Quebec singer and oud player Lamia Yared. Herself of Lebanese origin, the artist based in Montreal, who has a very good international reputation, surrounded herself with specialists of their respective instruments and traditions to stimulate a musical dialogue rarely achieved between different styles, but also languages and spiritual confessions. Through 15 titles drawn from the Syriac repertoire of the first centuries of Christianity, from the Muslim repertoire of the Muwashahat of Aleppo, from the mediaeval Cantigas de Santa Maria (which we know through Jordi Savall, among others) and other pieces from Sufi, Persian, Byzantine and Catholic cultures, Lamia Yared and the Spaniard Efren Lopez have succeeded in creating a quite moving and inspiring encounter. A bit like with Bach’s cantatas or Passions, there is no need to adhere to the beliefs at the base of the texts underlined by the music. It is enough to let oneself be imbued with the expressive force of the scores and to find one’s own source of spirituality there. This may be related to a certain idea of the afterlife or simply to the beauty of the sounds heard. But above all these considerations, it is primarily the idea of dialogue between traditions, peoples, cultures, and convictions that is at the heart of this approach. And that is perhaps what is most touching.
READ THE INTERVIEW CONDUCTED WITH LAMIA YARED ABOUT THE ALBUM
The official launch of the album From Minho to Euphrates will take place on April 24, 2026, at the Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours Chapel in Old Montreal.
