Mohamad Zatari Trio - Istehlal (2023)
As Farya Faraji recently pointed out in a viral YouTube essay, Western musicians have oftentimes passed as "Oriental music" - in fact, Orientalist - an incoherent hodgepodge of elements from different musical traditions from Armenia to India.
At the polar opposite of such an approach is this trio of instrumentalists from Syria, Iran, and India, recording in Bucharest - there is also one track subtly nodding to Romanian music, "Geampara-Hora" which on the physical edition is called "Quasi-Hora" - an organic merge... though "merge" is not the most appropriate term, as the focus is - if my untrained Western ears are correct - on the Arabic maqam, although it's only the Persian tar player who really gets a solo track.
The end result is authentically and engrossing Middle Eastern (the Indian tabla doesn't sound out of place here), though I must warn you that if what persuaded you to press play was the mention of "contemporary vibes" in the Bandcamp description, well, the "Tuning" bonus track is the only one that really sounds contemporary. (The other bonus track is a collective improvisation that is not worlds apart from the other compositions on here.)
P.S. If you are new to Zatari, I would recommend to check out first Quieter Than Silence, which even features guest vocals, and hence can hold more immediate appeal.