Stormy Weather: Marcel Khalife and "Promises of the Storm"

Our random song today is from Marcel Khalife, a Lebanese singer, composer and oud player. A winner of the Palestine Award for Music and the UNESCO Artist for Peace award, Khalife first created a group in his village in the 1970s to revive Lebanese music and Arab choral singing during the Lebanese civil war. He combines traditional Arab music with western elements such as piano, and recently has concentrated in instrumental works. His music has been controversial in the Arab world - it was banned in Tunisia in 2005 possibly due to his support of imprisoned Arabs in Israel and Arab countries and his support of Tunisian activists. He also faced criminal prosecution in Lebanon for a song using lyrics that quoted the Qu'ran. While Khalife was found innocent of blasphemy, senior Sunni Muslim clerics still maintain that he is guilty. This song, Promises of the Storm, is from his 1997 album of the same name.