Tim Rayborn - Qadim

I recently finished reading The Middle East by Bernard Lewis, which is a "brief" history of the past 1300 years in the Middle East. Very interesting book about a place we could all stand to learn more about. Shortly after finishing it I came across Qadim by Tim Rayborn, which is a collection of pieces, each performed on a single instrument, each of Middle Eastern/African/Central Asian origin. And what artist do I choose for my introduction to this kind of music? A white guy from the San Francisco Bay area. Oh well, baby steps at first, I suppose. Nothing here to rock out to and I'm not going to suddenly start meditating or recounting past lives, but it's good stuff. Some of the pieces, such as the opener, Laylat, work well in the foreground. The album as a whole, though, is great in the background and pieces like Saïd are a welcome change to the usual orchestras I have in my background music.