3'Ain is a trio in which trumpet player Yamen Martini (Ashtabiez), upright bass player Otto Kint (Otto Kintet, RVB Quartet,…) and accordion player Piet Maris (Jaune Toujours, Mec Yek, Choux de Bruxelles Artist Collective,…) join forces: they bring a unique blend of worldwide jazz with influences from the Swana region (South West Asia and North Africa). The band name is based on the eighteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet, ﻉ‎, a vowel which is said to be difficult to pronounce for western people - often represented as ‘3’ in chat and SMS conversations and as 'ain in transliteration. With their distinctive sound, they have released an EP in 2020 and a first full album ‘Sea of Stories’ in 2023, receiving international acclaim in the press.

Three years later, in the spring of 2026, they present a new album. With ‘Unland’ 3'Ain sets foot ashore. The title makes a critical comment on the importance attached to the concept of ‘land’ worldwide and can be understood in the light of the geopolitical tensions and conflicts of recent decades. Unland is not a word that exists in Dutch or French. In English if you want, it could be read as a verb: to unland. Only in German the word has a specific meaning, as a particular geographical category: “Unbebaute Flächen, die nicht geordnet genutzt wurden”.

‘Unland’ has been recorded and mixed in studio Zinnema in Anderlecht (Brussels) by Dries Van Ende who also worked on 3’Ain‘s first EP and the mix of their former album ‘Sea of Stories’.

01. Nachtschade is a composition by Otto Kint in which he combines a Hijaz Kar maqam (a maqam is the system of melodic modes used in traditional Arabic music) with Western harmonies. He extracted every possible triad from that scale and sought a chord progression in which the atmosphere of the scale shone through - the melody was added later.

02. Staketsel is a track by Piet Maris, which evolves from a bluesy bass groove, with handclaps, into a pentatonic style reminiscent of Ethiopiques. The music is as hybrid as the song’s title: both land and sea, building up in a few waves, with space in between for improvisation and stillness.

03. Oufti is the first single from the new album: a meditative track that opens with an accordion and a double bass played with an oud plectrum, creating a texture of quarter-tones. Slowly, a Sufi-inspired rhythm unfolds, reminiscent of the daf - it underpins the calm, contemplative pulse. The title refers to a Belgian expression from the Liège region that can convey surprise, relief or bewilderment - a word with a strong emotional charge, just like the composition itself

04. Zink opens with an energetic introductory theme, before transitioning into a slow, hypnotic groove. Following a double bass and accordion solo, the track builds towards a change of tempo and an up-tempo trumpet solo, before returning to the original groove and theme at the end.

05. On Shore takes us ashore, yet also refers to Off Shore, to the sea that was also present on the previous album (Sea of Stories): another track set between land and sea, featuring variations on a theme introduced on the accordion, a solo played on the double bass, and a trumpet that carries the listener away on an improvisation starting from the Bayat Maqam.

06. Batich Ahmar - ‘red melon’, or ‘watermelon’ in Arabic, is a track composed by Yamen Martini when 3'Ain were invited by Merodefestival at the start of the summer of 2025 for a residency at Park Abbey in Heverlee (Leuven). A live recording (video and audio) of the track was made in one of the corridors surrounding the monastery’s courtyard - available on YouTube. A studio version was recorded for the album. The watermelon symbolises Palestinian unity and international solidarity.