Anouar Brahem’s countryman and fellow oud master Dhafer Youssef once made an album called Electric Sufi.

Brahem’s remarkable Festival performance might fairly be called funk sufi. The pairing of Tunisian Brahem’s lute-like oud with the six-string electric bass of Bjorn Meyer, from Nik Bartsch’s “funk zen” band Ronin, might seem counterintuitive.

In fact it was a match made in heaven, lending a sense of cool to Brahem’s north African melodies.

Meanwhile, bass clarinettist Klaus Gesing covered the oud note for note and then took the reins in his solos, swinging, slurring and bending eastern themes into jazz.

With Lebanese percussionist Khaled Yassine completing the round-up of virtuoso performers, the result was a fusion of cultures that was precision-engineered for joy. The band was playing mostly music from their album The Astounding Eyes Of Rita. Astounding indeed.

By contrast, support act Portico Quartet’s fusion of romantic English pastoral and out-there new music seemed a less comfortable fit. But while theirs might be a work-in-progress, they were engaging and saxist Jack Wyllie’s thrilling free blowing gave it a powerful shot of electricity.