Jordanian guitarist belts out ‘progressive rock’ tunes amid pandemic blues

AMMAN — At the onset of the pandemic, amid gig cancellations and venue closures, the “only thing remaining was to compose music”, Jordanian guitarist Feras Arrabi remembers. 

Arrabi decided to prepare a crowd funding campaign to release an “instrumental progressive rock” album in Jordan.  

“I received support from people who were interested in progressive rock and it pushed me to complete my plans and release an album titled ‘Al Arrabi’ in September this year,” he told The Jordan Times.  

Arrabi added that thanks to a crowd funding campaign, he was able to complete the album. 

Arrabi is planning to produce a second album with material he did not include in his recent album. 

“This album is myself when I was 14, doing things that I always dreamed of doing. The second solo album should be more mature,” he said.

In 2018, Arrabi joined the “El Morrabba3” collective project, a Jordanian-Palestinian project that “came to life to offer groundbreaking sounds with its unique music and socially engaged lyrics,” according to the project’s website.  

He has since participated in multiple band gigs, which are a part of the project. 

 “Whenever El Morrabba3 needs me I’m joining their gigs and projects, like a standby guitarist,” Arrabi said.

“I want to keep creating music. Nowadays if you create one album a year it is not enough and musicians have to release more material annually,” Arrabi emphasised, noting that bands are switching to singles these days.

Instrumental albums remain “his thing”, Arrabi said, adding that he feels more confident with the music itself, without lyrics and vocals.

Arrabi said that from his recent album he would highlight the ninth track “Jupiter”, stating that “it’s a long track and it has sections and key modulations.”

Talking about the local indie-music scene, Arrabi said, “it’s small but has lots of talented musicians who all know each other”.

“The music scene is growing but how it’s expanding is hard to tell… one of the main problems is the lack of venues for bands,” Arrabi said.