With the steaming shimmer of a cymbal, Alif magically opens a creaking door, draws aside a heavy curtain and welcomes us into a room thick with the smell of sandalwood incense where revelers recline on silken pillows and smoke from gurgling hookahs, preparing for a night of decadent pleasures.
Blasphemy.
"Alif" -- the title of Omar Faruk Tekbilek's latest release -- is the first letter of the Arabic alphabet and symbolizes the name of Allah. Tekbilek is the son of an Egyptian and a Turk, and the music on "Alif" reflects his Islamic heritage as well as his Mediterranean blood -- the songs and the guest singers hail from Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Bulgaria. And all the songs are inspired by love, be it religious devotion or the heady secular kind.