The sawt tradition is an exclusively male preserve dating back either to the middle ages or the nineteenth century, depending on which historian you choose to follow, and bearing influences of the music of Iran, India and Africa as well as Arab neighbors. It consists of singing classical and dialect Arabic poems to a rhythmic backing, usually accompanied by the lute and percussion . The Bahreini sawt features qanun and violin while the Kuwaiti sawt relies on oud, Indian mirwas drums and clapping. An emphasis on poetic lyrics can make this music difficult to appreciate.
Ensemble Muhammad bin Fâris: Zayed Atiq, Anwar Alquattan, Khaled Alshaer (vocals and lute); Husain Aseeri (qanoun); Abdullah Khiri (violin);Saad Aljaffal, Anwar Ahmed, Yaqoob Bujaffal, Yusuf Alshomali, Aref Bucheeri ( Percussion and choir).