The Swiss hurdy gurdy player Mathias Loibner met the Syrian multi-instrumentalist Basel Rajoub when they first collaborated on Basel’s “Soriana Project”.

Loibner first learned music on conventional instruments (such as piano and guitar) to turn himself toward a much more unusual instrument : the hurdy gurdy.

With Riccardo Delfino as his master, he won the Hurdy Gurdy and Bagpipes Concourses in 1994 and taught the method of his instrument ever since. Mathias and Riccardo wrote together a method about the origins of the hurdy gurdy and how to practice it.

Basel Rajoub grew up in Damas. He was exposed at a very early age to a practice of various instruments  and started by learning trumpet, rocked by the music of Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. He studied saxophone from 18 of age.

Basel Rajoub is now one of the ambassadors of the interpretation of saxophone oriental music. Charmed by Matthias Loibner’s play, he soon offered him to bring their musics together in a one-of-a-kind project. This duo, full of finesse, is both a temporal gateway between tradition and modernity and the reflecting of their mastery.