El Hob

A long, layered track in a mix of Arabic voices. It opens with a chant of the single word for love, over and over, with a rhythm like breathing. Then the verses come. The first speaker says his heart has lived through every beauty and seen a great deal. Whoever trusted in love knows how regret closes in. Love called him, and he answered with tears. A second voice, in Egyptian, says that words of acceptance are spoken before anyone arrives. He has loved often, and has only ever said that he loved about his father and mother, because that is where the feeling of life begins. Here there is no ending, they are at the start of the road, and there is far to go. The last section is a father's instruction to a son, repeated like a mantra: learn to love, and stay near. The soul loves to be close, even when closeness feels strange.