‘ONE’ is a collaboration between Sami Yusuf, Cappella Amsterdam, and The Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra. Composed by Sami Yusuf, this piece was intended to be part of the full concert ONE: When Paths Meet at the Holland Festival in June 2020. With the Festival and concert postponed until 2022, it was decided to make this piece available online. Its production was exhilarating but incredibly challenging technically, with 29 musicians performing in separate studios.

‘ONE’ opens with Cappella Amsterdam’s performance of a hauntingly beautiful vocal score suggestive of Gregorian chant. Transitioning from Western Europe to the world of Andalusia and North Africa, the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra engages and tantalizes with sounds of the ney, violin, qanun and percussions, until the dramatic outro seals the ecstatic experience.

Composed in E Flat / Maqam Nahawand, the German lyrics are from the 13th-c. Christian metaphysician Meister Eckhart. Arabic lyrics are by Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari, the 13th century Andalusian mystic and poet. Thematically linked, the words of these two visionaries speak of the Eternal ‘I’ and of the Unity of vision — one seeing, one knowing, one love.