: ' .. .:.... . ' ' ______________ : ________ : ' \ / .. .:. .. \ / : : \ /_________ \ / . .. ... .. . : .\ / /___ /\ \ / ______________ ___ _. : \ / / \ / \ \/ / \ \ \ \ \ . ...:..\ / _______/ \/ \ ___/__ / / / / / : /\ / / \ \/ \ / / / . sH! ' / \/ / / / \ / / . ... .:.... .. . :/ _______/ / / / _______/__ ___ __ .\ / / / / / / / / / / / \ / / / / / / / / / / / . . \ /\______/ / / / / \___ / / : \/ ____ \ / / / / / : \ / \ /\____/\ / / : : ________\/ \ / \ / / : ' \ / \/ \ /\ / : . ..:.. . \ / \/ \ / \ / \ / . ' : \/ F A N G \ / : ' ____ \ / . . .. .. .:.. . \ / presents \ / . . \/ \/ : : . ..:.. , : Artist......: Land of Kush : Album.......: Sand Enigma : : Label.......: Constellation Records .. .:.. . Genre.......: Avantgarde : Catnr.......: CST146 . ' Source......: CD , ; Rip.date....: 2021-06-27 Str.date....: 2019-11-08 Quality.....: 253kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo . :.. .:. Url.........: http://landofkush.bandcamp.com ' ' , ________ ________ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / # title time \ / \/ \/ 1. Aha 7:14 2. Domyat 1331 6:18 3. Safe Space 5:36 4. Broken Maqams 10:32 5. Sand Enigma 7:56 6. Ssssss 3:52 7. Recuerdo 6:26 8. Bone Mass I 1:32 9. Bone Mass II 1:26 10. 10 Bone Mass III 5:54 11. Ana 2:42 12. Trema 7:12 13. Dol 2:45 14. Tensor 6:56 ______ \ / ________ Runtime 76:21 ,\ /... . . .... .... \ / ' Size 149.21______ :\/ ', \ / , \ / ' '... ..\ /.. .. .....:. .. .... .. . ..\ /. : Release Notes: \/ , \/ , ' ' ,: Renowned MontrΘal/Cairo-based composer Sam Shalabi returns with :, : his exhilarating and utterly genre-bending big band Land Of : :' Kush. The trenchantly-titled Sand Enigma is the orchestraÆs ': ,: long awaited fourth album û its first in six years, following :, : 2013Æs The Big Mango, ShalabiÆs critically-acclaimed love letter : :' to Cairo, written and recorded during the Arab Spring. While ': ,: the intervening years have obviously been devastating and :, : disenchanting in so many ways, Sand Enigma bristles with defiant : :' exuberance, restless creative energy, and electrifying ': ,: cross-cultural expression. The album is a wildly diverse and :, : hugely compelling tour de force of modern composition that : :' pulses with emotion and experimentation, blending avant-garde, ': ,: psychedelic, Middle Eastern, out-jazz, electronic and :, : improv/free music tropes to stunning effect. Sand Enigma is peak : :' Land Of Kush: the bandÆs most accomplished, acute and ': ,: accessible album to date (though donÆt expect æeasy listeningÆ :, : from this boundary-pushing hydra-headed entity). : :' ': ,: Premiered at a rapturously-received concert in spring 2018 at :, : the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Shalabi entered MontrΘalÆs : :' Hotel2Tango studio later that year to record Sand Enigma with ': ,: producer/engineer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart, :, : Matana Roberts, Suuns, Big Brave, Sarah Davachi) and a cast of : :' over twenty of MontrΘalÆs finest out-music players, many of ': ,: them veterans of Kush and of ShalabiÆs various other projects. :, : This 75-minute work (spread across two slabs of vinyl in the : :' deluxe 2x180gLP edition) brilliantly captures a band on fire, ': ,: flowing through composed set-pieces, improvisational turns, :, : harmolodic gestural and textural interplay, bursts of fervent : :' groove, and fearless, feral experimentation. As Alan Bishop ': ,: (Sun City Girls/Sublime Frequencies) raves: ôSam Shalabi has :, : raised the bar for modern psychedelic music with the Land Of : :' Kush orchestra, weaving a seamless montage of styles in a ': ,: transcendent way that is rarely, if ever, achieved.ö :, : : :' As with previous works, the music on Sand Enigma also shifts ': ,: between instrumentals and vocal-led pieces, with various singers :, : contributing their own lyrics and taking the lead on different : :' songs û including long-standing Kush members Elizabeth Anka ': ,: Vajagic, Katie Moore and Elizabeth Lima (also a virtuosic :, : extended technique clarinetist), and the newly drafted : :' Tokyo-to-MontrΘal ΘmigrΘ Maya Kuroki. And while the bounty of ': ,: heavy-hitting instrumental players are too numerous to call out :, : here, Sand Enigma notably features two new international : :' collaborators, and leading lights of CairoÆs burgeoning ': ,: avant-electronic scene: Nadah El Shazly (vocals) and Maurice :, : Louca (keys/synths). Among other accolades, both were recently : :' featured as avatars of the Egyptian ænew waveÆ in a cover story ': ,: in The Wire (along with Dwarfs Of East Agouza, the epiphanic :, : trio of which Shalabi is a member) and both are perfect fits for : :' ShalabiÆs compositional sensibility and the idiosyncratic ': ,: performative spaces he seeks to open up in his big band works. :, : Shazly takes the vocal lead on three songs, including the : :' simmeringly strange slow-burn of the superb album opener ôAhaö, ': ,: and the more traditionally-rooted (though suitably tweaked) :, : maqam-based groove of ôTremaö û both highlights on an album that : :' truly bursts forth with them, like relentless fireworks set off ': ,: from several corners of the world, converging over a MontrΘal :, : twilight sky, inscribing a celebratory celestial score that : :' innately resists every facile, orthodox or prevailing idea of ': ,: æfusionÆ music. Thanks for listening. :, : : :' ': : ' '.. ..' .. . :........... . . . . ............: . . ______________ ______________ \ / \ / \ / Shout out to all our homies from: \ / \ / \ / \ / iPC BOSS HiT2000 1way UKi i8 RNS \ / \ / RAGEMP3 MANDY DV8 pLAN9 BUTT \ / \ / \ / \/ ____ ____ \/ \ / F A N G \ / \/ 2 0 2 1 \/