Meta And The Cornerstones - Hira (Metarize/Dibyz Music)

The album is conceived as a spiritual quest with love as a guide, starting in the cave in the Jabal al-Nour or The Mountain of Light in Saudi Arabia (the place where, according to Islamic scripture, the Prophet Muhammad received his first revelations from the Archangel Jibril or Gabriel), a journey eventually rewarding one with finding one's true identity (closing track 'Finding Oneself'). The cave of Hira is not the only reference to Islam, because 'Bilal' is dedicated to Bilal ibn Rabah, one of the most reliable and loyal companions of the Prophet Muhammad, of whom it is believed he was the very first muezzin (also important: Bilal was an Ethiopian and is still often cited by Muslims as proof of equality within Islam). Original is the collaboration with the Spanish-Equatorial Guinean singer and multiple Latin Grammy winner Concha Buika, who pops up in the track list twice and gives both 'Do' and 'Regardless' a flamenco touch. In addition to flamenco, this time Meta also spiced his songs with some influences from gnawa (the outro of 'Kingdom'), jazz (the piano intro of title track 'Hira', and again that piano in 'Join The People'), and rock ('Valley Of Roses'). The album was mixed by Shane Brown and Bonzai Caruso, and in the list of participating musicians in the horn section we recognized Dean Fraser, Rico Gaultier and Tommy Tornado, on accordion Fixi, and on guitar Kubix.