Ilya Ziblat–Shay (Israel/The Netherlands) composer and bass player, holds a Bachelor Degree in composition from the Rubin Academy, Tel Aviv University, currently living and working in the Hague, the Netherlands. His music features different combinations of composed material and of improvisation-suggesting instructions. As a composer he has worked with ensembles such as the ASKO Ensemble, De Ereprijs, and The Netherlands Wind Ensemble (Nederlands Blazers Ensemble). As a bass player he is active mostly in performing contemporary classical repertoire, both on the double bass and bass-guitar.

Night Along The Top, With Mr. Abdel Wahab
This piece is based on a song, written and performed by Mohammed Abdel Wahab, one of the greatest of the arab music world of the 20th century, an Egyptian singer, Oud player and composer. I used only two short fragments from Abdel Wahab’s original recording, transcribing his singing into notes. I began developing and playing with this very little, yet so rich in posibilities, material, with a complete personal perspective. I did not try to get inside the world of Arab music, nor to use that language idiomatically, and certainly this piece is not an attempt to create a western usage of the material, an east-west combination. This piece is nothing but an account of what was going on inside my head while listening to the original recording, by myself, with headphones, very late at night.