Ibrahim Maalouf, the master of trumpet will perform two nights in a row at Babylon on 20-21 May.

And yet despite the pleasure and rich artistic experience gained from working with these artists, Ibrahim hasn't been sidetracked from his own priorities: composing and developing his work in a highly personal manner so that the extent of his gifts as an instrumentalist – and the diversity of his own influences – can express themselves to the full. Diagnostic is his third album, and it forms the third chapter in a triptych which began with his two albums Diasporas (released 2007) and Diachronism (2009). Diagnostic is a magnificent conclusion for a cycle based on the search for an original aesthetic, one dominated by the four-valve horn and in which he traces his path through many universes: jazz, classical, world music, rock, electro... and even rap, as shown here by the presence of Oxmo Puccino. This album completes an artist's search for independence from genre-constraints, in answer to a desire for unity and harmony. While it allows the musician to bring together all the sounds which have fed his imagination since childhood – whatever their origins, either a maternal orient or an emancipated west – this record also provides the possibility for him to re-compose his own family: each of the seven titles is inspired by one of its members. As for the closing Beirut, it pays a moving tribute to his country of origin, Lebanon, itself a torn extension of Maalouf's family. An open, instinctive musician for whom technique necessarily serves feeling, Ibrahim Maalouf establishes himself here as a composer who, over time and through experience, has acquired mastery and assurance, both of them synonyms for freedom. "Nothing forbidden" was the golden rule which governed the recording of these eight pieces – meticulously orchestrated and feverishly 'alive' – accomplished in the Parisian studio of composer Armand Amar. You can hear Ibrahim for the first time on piano, the instrument with which he began his musical career, and he also sings. If the geographical epicentre of this record lies in the Balkans, whose exuberant, brass-band style the trumpeter borrows here, his travels also take him to Cuba, Latin America and even China... a nomad's logic which also leads him to a piano introduction worthy of Chopin, an improvisation over a Michael Jackson theme in We’ll Always Care About You, or a stripped-down, 'no complexes' passion for heavy metal which Maalouf has preserved since adolescence. Inside this great whirlpool entwining his whole life in its vortex, Maalouf's trumpet dispenses a thousand intimate emotions: anger, nostalgia, despair, euphoria... Blowing with rare intensity and exceptional depth, his horn articulates the pain and tenderness of the past, while bearing witness to the vast ambitions of a creator who has become a master of his discourse.

Ibrahim Maalouf : trumpet

Frank Woeste : Fender Rhodes

François Delporte : guitar

Laurent David : bass

Xavier Rogé : drums

Youenn Le Cam : flûte, trumept, Breton bagpipes