Odd News

Musician uses bombs backdrop

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-31 21:20

LONDON - A Lebanese musician has recorded a unique duet with the Israeli Air Force by recording on the balcony of his Beirut apartment during a bombing raid.

In his sound art piece, trumpeter Marzen Kerbaj intermingles his music with the sounds of bombardment.

Explaining how he put together his unique composition, Kerbaj told BBC Radio: "I was maybe three kilometres (two miles) away. I could see them explode and hear them but somehow I was safe.

"It is freaking for the nerves but I quickly understood that if I play music while it is happening, it is much better than just hearing it happening. Somehow my brain shifts and I focus totally on the music."

Asked if he thought his composition was in questionable taste, he said: "Throwing bombs on buses with kids escaping from their villages is in much more horrible taste."

He said the recording was a way of making people listen to what Beirut was facing. "It's not like on CNN. It is not a Hollywood movie, it is really happening."