Sami Yusuf’s composition ‘Veritas’ premiered at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as the first of his concert series When Paths Meet. From the minimal and ethereal sound of the intro, it subtly transitions to a sense of awe at the astonishing majesty and multiplicity of creation. The Persian-influenced musical phrasing of Sami Yusuf’s vocalisations in the intro are inspired by the Daramad of Avaz-e dashti, a subgroup of the Shur dastgah, a Persian modal system evocative of a meditative state. Cappella Amsterdam sings quarter tones here and they do so brilliantly. The flamenco and Andalusian sounds of the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra interplay with Western classical elements and the vibrant Arabic maqam Bayati. When the mode shifts to the passionate yearning of maqam Nahawand, its similarity to the Western classical minor scale brings an effortless resonance between the two. The outro joins Bayati and a harmonic minor scale in a multi-faceted, fiery expression of multiple, even contradictory states of being, while the vocalists insist, ‘Veritas’, ‘Veritas’ – Truth, Truth – and cast our focus beneath the turbulent surface storms to the calm depths below.