Jacco Muller and Victor Ghannam: Alhambra by Night (digital outlets)

Unless you get there when the gates open, it's likely your memory of the Alhambra in Granada will be of tour groups, excitable school kids and noise.

I got lucky, I was staying in cheap digs underneath the wall so got there before anyone else and had a leisurely hour almost by myself.

So few people that I could take photos with no one in them, that would be rare I'd think.

The Alhambra by night is an image which is highly evocative: a sense of mystery as much as the vibrant and palatial life that its occupants enjoyed.

Flamenco guitarist Jacco Muller and oud player Victor Ghannam would seem to be the exactly right combination of instruments and artists to conjure up the Alhambra, a breathtaking castle of Islamic architecture (that's the oud) in Spain (and that's the guitar).

If the building is emblematic of the Moorish period in Spain, the music by Muller and Ghannam bridges the different styles so there can be romantic drama (Where the Sea Meets the Sun), a sense of mystery (the title track, Katinka) and an evocation of the landscape where the Moors had come from (Desert Sand).

These artists have appeared at Elsewhere previously and this a fine reminder of them at their best.

.

You can hear this album at Spotify here