When Elias Bachoura plucks the strings of his oud, a whole world takes shape: that of the great oud masters, but also Brussels with its Manneken-Pis, which he sketches between the lines. The Belgian-Syrian musician is releasing his first solo album , Biharayto, which means “in the end” or “at last” in Aramaic. After nearly 20 years of constant yet discreet presence on the Brussels music scene, he opens up in a powerful and deeply personal album that moves between Damascus and Brussels, where the oriental influences of Syrian maqâms interweave with more contemporary composition.
Trained at the Damascus Conservatory and then at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Elias Bachoura has built a complete artistic life here. Musician, composer, educator, oud teacher at Muziekpublique for fifteen years, he has contributed to countless projects without ever committing his own music to a solo album. At 51, that moment has finally arrived.
The eight compositions on Biharayto, written between 1998 and 2012, have matured over the years between Damascus, Aleppo and Brussels. Some were born before he left Syria, others during the war. This intimate and profoundly human album evokes memory and exile, loss and transmission, what we carry with us when we leave a country and what we rebuild elsewhere. A full and complete music that fiercely refuses to choose between its heritages, and that finally delivers the compositions Elias has carried within him for decades.
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