Search:youssef

Kerri Chandler’s Kaoz Theory kicks off 2022 with Mr. ID’s Language Of Jazz EP, featuring two remixes from the label boss himself alongside two original cuts.

2021 saw Kerri Chandler’s Kaoz Theory continue to move from strength to strength, unveiling material from the likes of Dutch rising star Chris Stussy and of course Kerri himself, here we see the imprint wrap things up with a new addition to the roster, Casablanca, Morocco-based artist Mr. ID.

Up first on the release is ‘Track ID1’, a collaboration between Mr. ID and Youssef Grirane featuring Rita Mdn. It’s a unique six-minute journey through jazzy pianos and organ licks, intricate organic percussion and mesmeric, textural atmospheres. Kerri gives it the remix treatment in style extracting all of the jazziness of the original and retwisting things with the classic Chandler authentic house feel. Next, Chandler employs his revered 623 alias for the ‘623 Again Mix’ version which strips things back to low-slung drums, bumpy stabs and emotive piano lines.

The flip side houses ‘Track ID1’ in all its original glory before ‘Track ID2’ closes out proceedings seeing Mr. ID join forces with Younes Akhraz, rhythmically shifting to a jazzy 4/4 drum groove while wandering keys and warm subs fuel the mystical vibe.

DJ Feedback:

Sasha – Tasty

Laurent Garnier – Love the whole EP

Jimpster – Jazzed up piano house heaven! Love It!

Lea Lisa – Lovely remix by Kerri

Mr. V – Kerri delivers the goods once again!!!

Anja Schneider – Great. Love It.

Archie Hamilton – Nice

Andrew Treagust - Man that's some crazy production – really like it!

Mike W - absolutely classic release. how on earth could you go wrong? the world needs more piano!

Fish Go Deep - All tracks sounding great here. ID1 is a lovely warm groove and Kerri's remixes inject a little dancefloor bump to proceedings.

Daniel Troberg – incredible music

Kiki Navarro – excellent single, loving all the mixes special ID1 and the Kerri Chandler Main Remix

Ben Lovett – Remix mastery from Chandler – wonderful meeting of piano and drum – fire.

Sergio – Excellent example of classic house with personality

Hector Samper – Amazing EP!!!

Die Lieder des Oud-Meisters und Sängers sind noch intimer als zuvor – denn dies ist eine persönliche Geschichte. Das Album ist seiner Frau Shiraz Fradi gewidmet, der gemeinsamen, engen Beziehung und ihrem wendungsreichen Weg. Die Stücke sind durchzogen von der Energie zahlloser Begegnungen und Entdeckungen aus Youssefs jahrzehntelanger musikalischer Reise und zugleich geprägt von zärtlicher Demut für das Hier und Jetzt. Musik, so farben- und wendungsreich wie das Leben.

Maya Youssef is a multi-award winning musician and composer from Syria. She is hailed as ‘queen of the qanun,’ the 78-stringed Middle Eastern plucked zither. Maya’s intense and thoughtful music is rooted in the Arabic classical tradition but forges pathways into Western classical and contemporary styles. It explores the emotional and healing qualities of music.

The 'Finding Home' is a journey through memories and the essence of home both within and without in the search of that place of peace, comfort, and healing which manifests in everyone in a unique way.

Maya wrote this album during a time of spiritual awakening. Over time she has come to accept the loss of her homeland and in the process of grieving (which she explored in her Album Syrian Dreams in 2018) Maya has found a much greater sense of home in the most spiritual sense.

“As any Syrian will tell you, there is this overwhelming sense of loss and an overwhelming sense of grief. Because that world which existed before the war started, despite it naturally having problems, was a beautiful world with a booming economy, artistic scene, film festivals and visiting international artists, Damascus was the third safest city in the world. The loss of that world was heart wrenching and, in a way, steered me towards a universal concept of home.

The main trigger that made me create Syrian Dreams was the Syrian war and the loss of my homeland. And it's only by embarking on that spiritual journey of constant meditation and of finding home within God and within myself that I started to feel consolable and started to feel that I have my own home within me. I felt that the world is my home and humanity is my home. With my latest album I want to take people through a transformative journey, where they land in that place of home for them. No matter how that will look like for each person.” Maya Youssef

Tunisian oud player and vocalist Dhafer Youssef is at the vanguard of a movement in contemporary music that brings East and West together. He is one of the most inventive oud players in the world and has succeeded in freeing the instrument from its traditional role and bringing it into jazz.

In 2016, he released his solo album Diwan Of Beauty And Odd, which he recorded together with Aaron Parks, Ben Williams, Mark Giuliana and Ambrose Akinmusire. The album was received with critical acclaim and fuses Arabic and Western culture. It features the popular tracks “Fly Shadow Fly” and “Diving In The Air”.

Diwan Of Beauty And Odd is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on translucent magenta coloured vinyl, housed in gatefold sleeve and includes an insert.

In Sudan, the political and cultural are inseparable. In 1989, a coup brought a hardline religious government to power. Music was violently condemned. Many musicians and artists were persecuted, tortured, forced to flee into exile — and even murdered, ending one of the most beloved music eras in all of Africa and largely denying Sudan's gifted instrumentalists, singers, and poets, from strutting their creative heritage on the global stage.

What came before in a special era that protected and promoted the arts was one of the richest music scenes anywhere in the world. Although Sudanese styles are endlessly diverse, this compilation celebrates the golden sound of the capital, Khartoum. Each chapter of the cosmopolitan city's tumultuous musical story is covered through 16 tracks: from the hypnotic violin and accordion-driven orchestral music of the 1970s that captured the ears and hearts of Africa and the Arabic-speaking world, to the synthesizer and drum machine music of the 1980s, and the music produced in exile in the 1990s. The deep kicks of tum tum and Nubian rhythms keep the sound infectious.

Sudan of old had music everywhere: roving sound systems and ubiquitous bands and orchestras kept Khartoum's sharply dressed youth on their feet. Live music was integral to cultural life, producing a catalog of concert recordings. In small arenas and large outdoor venues, musical royalty of the day built Khartoum's reputation as ground zero for innovation and technique that inspired a continent.

Musicians in Ethiopia and Somalia frequently point to Sudan's biggest golden era stars as idols. Mention Mohammed Wardi — a legendary Sudanese singer and activist akin to Fela Kuti in stature and impact in his music and politics — and they often look to the heavens. A popular story is of one man from Mali who walked for three months across the Sahel to Sudan because the father of the woman he wanted to marry would only allow it if he got him a signed cassette from Wardi himself. Saied Khalifa is said to be the one of the few singers to make Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie smile.

Such is the stature of Sudanese singers and the reputation of Sudanese music, particularly in the "Sudanic Belt," a cultural zone that stretches from Djibouti all the way west to Mauritania, covering much of the Sahara and the Sahel, lands where Sudanese artists are household names and Sudanese poems are regularly used as lyrics until today to produce the latest hits. Sudanese cassettes often sold more in Cameroon and Nigeria than at home.

But years of anti-music sentiment have made recordings in Sudan difficult to source. Ostinato's team traveled to Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Egypt in search of the timeless cultural artifacts that hold the story of one of Africa's most mesmerizing cultures. That these cassette tape and vinyl recordings were mainly found in Sudan's neighbors is a testament to Sudanese music's widespread appeal.

With our Sudanese partner and co-compiler Tamador Sheikh Eldin Gibreel, a once famous poet and actress in '70s Khartoum, Ostinato's fifth album, following our Grammy-nominated "Sweet As Broken Dates," revives the enchanting harmonies, haunting melodies, and relentless rhythms of Sudan's brightest years, fully restored, remastered and packaged luxuriously in a triple LP gatefold and double CD bookcase to match the regal repute of Sudanese music.
A 20,000-word liner note booklet gives voice to the singers silenced by an oppressive regime.

Take a sail down the Blue and White Nile as they pass through Khartoum, carrying with them an ancient history and a never-ending stream of poems and songs. It takes two Niles to sing a melody.

The Tenets of Forgetting is the long-awaited follow-up to MSYLMA’s lauded 2019 debut, Dhil-un Taht Shajarat Al-Zaqum. This time he’s joined by fellow musician and producer ISMAEL for seven tracks, built around a lush palette of synths and MSYLMA’s singular voice.

Written and produced in Cairo between 2015 and 2020, The Tenets of Forgetting is the first collaboration between MSYLMA and ISMAEL. Like his first record, The Tenets of Forgetting finds MSYLMA singing in classical Arabic, and the musicians have enlisted Nariman Youssef to provide translations of the lyrics. This gesture of openness runs parallel to the themes of the record; romance and vulnerability; growth and change; pathos and passion. Listeners who aren’t familiar with pre-Islamic poetry or classical Arabic will find the lyrics just as rich and beautiful as the vocal melodies imply, telling a story of love, loss, self-doubt, and grave introspection.

Musically, the album moves in broad, painterly sweeps of 808 kicks, rich synthesizer chords, and MYSLMA’s soaring, plaintive voice. The English translations reveal a second world of mathematically sound rhythmic structures and poetry in the lyrics. The music pushes and pulls in both tempo and timbre, swirling both around and underneath MSYLMA’s voice but never losing a sense of self-contained narrative.

The album is rounded out by Jesse Osborne-Lanthier and Omar El-Sadek’s immersive, esoteric art, and features additional production on track 7 by Osborne-Lanthier, Pierre Guerineau, and Asaël Robitaille.

Limited run of 300. Includes insert + DL code.

Sweet Pill ist eine Emo-Band aus Philadelphia, deren Songs sich zwischen Pop und Hardcore bewegen. Sie veröffentlichten ihr Debütalbum Where The Heart Is (2022) im selben Jahr, in dem sie bei Topshelf Records unter Vertrag genommen wurden, und seitdem befinden sie sich auf Erfolgskurs. Unter anderem wurde sie von Hayley Williams von Paramore wärmstens empfohlen, der ihr Song "High Hopes" so gut gefiel, dass sie ihn in ihrem Podcast "Everything Is Emo" erwähnte. Das zweite starke Album von Sweet Pill, Still There's a Glow, ist eine widerstandsfähige Antwort auf den zunehmenden Druck nach ihrem erfolgreichen Debüt Where The Heart Is. Angesichts der Erschöpfung verwarf die Band frühe Demos, um ihrer psychischen Gesundheit Vorrang zu geben, und schuf schließlich ein rohes Dokument der Selbstreflexion, das Sängerin Zayna Youssef als "das Schwierigste, was ich je tun musste" bezeichnet. Das neue Album markiert eine bedeutende Entwicklung in ihrer kreativen Dynamik und ist das erste, das vollständig als Gemeinschaftswerk von Youssef, den Gitarristen Jayce Williams und Sean McCall, dem Bassisten Ryan Cullen und dem Schlagzeuger Chris Kearney geschrieben wurde. Aufgenommen im Gradwell House mit den langjährigen Produzenten Matt Weber und Dave Downham, zielt das Album darauf ab, die kinetische Energie ihrer Live-Shows einzufangen - Auftritte, die ihnen die Unterstützung von Stars wie Hayley Williams und Doja Cat eingebracht haben. Das Ergebnis ist eine gehobene Mischung aus komplexem Math-Rock, drängendem Punk und herzlichem Emo. Als woman of color in der Alternative-Szene hofft Youssef, dass das Album und die Tournee eine vorurteilsfreie Community für die Fans fördern werden. Still, There's a Glow ist ein Beweis für das Überleben und Wachstum der Band und lädt die Zuhörer dazu ein, ihr eigenes Licht am Ende des Tunnels zu finden. CD & farbige LP erhältlich

Heavy//Hitter are set to release their 2nd EP for Blue Grape Music, Coming to Terms. The EP is produced by Austin Coupe (The Devil Wears Prada, Citizen, Mat Kerekes) and includes features from Zayna Youssef of Sweet Pill and Yasmine Liverneaux of Face Yourself.

"Amir ElSaffar (b. 1977, USA) is a composer, trumpeter, vocalist, santur player, and modular synthesizer artist whose innovative compositions blend elements of jazz, classical, and traditional Arabic music. His newly established label, Maqām Records, released its first album earlier this year, Maqam Al-Iraq, by legendary vocalist, Hamid Al-Saadi and is now following up with an album of ElSaffar’s work, New Quartet Live at Pierre Boulez Saal. Recorded live in Berlin in 2023, the album captures the ineffable magic of ElSaffar’s first encounter with Greek pianist Tania Giannouli, a star on the European jazz scene, alongside his NYC-based collaborators: acclaimed drummer and bandleader, Tomas Fujiwara, and saxophonist Ole Mathisen, who is also a featured member of ElSaffar’s Two Rivers and Rivers of Sound orchestra. The quartet merges Arabic maqām with jazz harmony and features microtonal and prepared piano. In addition to the concert itself, the album features alternate takes that were recorded at Pierre Boulez Saal the next day without an audience.

RIYL: Classic artists: Miles Davis - “Sketches of Spain,” “Kind of Blue,” John Coltrane - “A Love Supreme,” “Ballads,” Don Cherry - “Relativity Suite,” Ahmed Abdul Malik - “Jazz Sahara,” “East Meets West,” Cecil Taylor, John Hassel, Hossam Ramzy, Ziad Rahbani.
Contemporary artists: Vijay Iyer, Ibrahim Maalouf, Ambrose Akinmusire, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Dhafer Youssef"

Philadelphia's THE WONDER YEARS are set to release Burst & Decay Vol. III on May 9 via Hopeless Records. This third installment of their stripped-back series introduces a new track, "Junebug," written by vocalist Dan Campbell about his younger son and produced by Steve Evetts (SAVES THE DAY, LIFETIME). On the record, Campbell's personal narrative continues with "Wyatt's Song (Your Name)," a piece crafted for his older son that employs the actual recording of Wyatt's in-utero heartbeat as its metronome. Closing the album, "Doors I Painted Shut" delivers cinematic intensity through vibrant vocals and production led by guitarist Nick Steinborn, signaling a confident exploration into new sonic territory. Burst & Decay Vol. III also features collaborative reinterpretations of signature tracks. On "Came Out Swinging," Joe Taylor of KNUCKLE PUCK lends dynamic vocals, while Zayna Youssef of SWEET PILL amplifies the raw vulnerability on "Oldest Daughter." Ryland Heagy of ORIGAMI ANGEL offers a tender performance on "I Don't Like Who I Was Then." Over a career spanning more than a decade, THE WONDER YEARS have toured extensively_sharing stages with MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, PARAMORE, DESCENDANTS, THURSDAY, BLEACHERS, and others_and built a community through their own label and the annual Loneliest Place On Earth festival, which has showcased acts such as HOT MULLIGAN, ORIGAMI ANGEL, and LAURA STEVENSON. Their previous album, The Hum Goes On Forever, debuted at #3 on the US Alternative Album Chart and earned recognition from Paste Magazine as one of the best records of the 2020s, while the track "Year of The Vulture" was chosen as the theme for WWE NXT's Stand and Deliver event.

EP on 12" vinyl with insert. Pianist Orson Claeys is a refreshing new presence on the Belgian jazz scene.The music takes cues from the rich sounds of the Middle East, influenced by artists like Dhafer Youssef and Anouar Brahem, and also from the fresh, creative styles of contemporary jazz musicians.



Pianist Orson Claeys is a refreshing new presence on the Belgian jazz scene. After being featured on the third instalment of the 'Lefto presents Jazz Cats' compilations with his track 'Conversations', Orson Claeys is set to release his 5-track debut EP 'Odyssey to Self' on Sdban Ultra.



Spellbound by the allure of the piano at a young age, Claeys joined art school, where his more profound exploration really began. However, it wasn't until a later age, when he discovered the melodies of Herbie Hancock, that he was drawn to jazz and changed his musical course. Under the guidance of renowned artists, Claeys had the opportunity to immerse himself in this new sound atthe Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. He developed his own style, learning to weave different cultural influences and musical genres. These days, Claeys is constantly searching for his own unique sound in today's modern jazz, fusing different musical traditions into one harmonious expression.

"Odyssey to Self" isn't just an EP; it's a story about life-the ups, downs, and the personal journey we all experience. "From the start, I wanted this project to go beyond my own artistry and connect with more people. That's why I decided to create a visual counterpart to the music, a way to see the journey that you hear in the record."

This is Orson Claeys' first EP, released under Ghent's well-known Sdban Records. It's a deep dive into Claeys' own life, honestly sharing his path through major changes. "Odyssey to Self" captures his personal journey, giving listeners a look at the universal human experience of dealing with life's challenges and embracing change.

The music takes cues from the rich sounds of the Middle East, influenced by artists like Dhafer Youssef and Anouar Brahem, and also from the fresh, creative styles of contemporary jazz musicians such as Aaron Parks, Brad Mehldau, and Ambrose Akinmusire. Claeys aimed to blend these diverse musical influences into one cohesive sound. "Odyssey to Self" invites listeners to experience Claeys' emotions, experiences, and artistic vision, weaving stories that touch on themes we all understand.

2024 Reissue

Rare, spiritual and groovy, this is the ultimate live album, the pinnacle of the spiritual jazz scene! Detroit's proud drummer Roy Brooks' epic blackness is back!

Hardcore craftsman artist and drummer, who began his career in the 50s and remained at the forefront of the scene until his death in 2005, starting with the Horace Silver Combo in the early 60s and continuing with bands such as Stanley Turrentine, Youssef Latief and Charles Mingus. Roy Brooks. The drummer, who also played on Detroit's Wenden Harrison albums and was part of Max Roach's renowned M'boom project, recorded this live performance in NYC in November 1973 under the name The Artistic Truth, a group he led in the early '70s. Recorded live in NYC in November 1973 under the name of The Artistic Truth, this album easily surpasses the Baystate release in terms of quality and density. The band featured Reggie Workman (b), Olu Dara (tp), Joe Bonner (p), Cecil Bridgewater (tp), Sonny Fortune (as) and other prominent black musicians, with Eddie Jefferson joining on vocals on two tracks. This is a live document of five songs and 48 minutes of spiritual soul, packed with the raw, unrelenting groove of spiritual jazz from this era

The kind of band whose members are fully immersed in their local scene-through a handful of notable side projects and the show- promoting Philly staple 4333 Collective- the quintet's sound takes wide- spectrum influence from its environment. The result is an amalgam of complex song structures and flourishes of technical acumen, wholly unconcerned with genre, yet evoking the specific styles of touchstones such as Paramore and Circa Survive.

On their debut longplayer Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill's unbound, raucous energy presents through ten autobiographical tracks that hinge on singer Zayna Youssef's elastic, enrapturing voice- at times belting and controlled, at others textural and guttural. Supporting Youssef are guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. Their blistering lead single "Blood" sees Youssef exploring a deteriorated friendship over Williams and McCall's trudging riffs and tactful counterpoint, with Cullen and Kearney rumbling nimbly in the song's foundations.

Second single "High Hopes" counters with introspective, melodic punk that reshapes anxiety rather than succumb to it. But third single "Diamond Eyes" momentarily slows the pace, with McCall joining Youssef on vocals for a breakup lament laden with acoustic sentimentalism and an emotive flurry from guest flutist Jill Ryan. Such range is the central facet of Where the Heart Is, where Sweet Pill's penchant for combining punkish tropes enlivened with the vibrance of math- rock and the aggression of post- hardcore sweetened with pop sensibility compound into something stylistically new yet still familiar.

Little Beat More, Do It Youssef, Not a Pub & Un Rêve Nu labels are glad to introduce ÈCH's latest work, a stunning display of musical mastery that will capture your heart and soul.
Led by Heddy Boubaker, the Toulouse-based band has created a sound that defies categorization, blending elements of free jazz and psychedelic afro-latin rhythm, and more to create a truly unique musical experience which they self described as "post-pfunk-afro-voodoo-weird-free-rock".

With 'Au nombre de joie' and 'Le bonheur des uns fait le malheur des autres', the ÈCH make up two little gems of music that take us back to a time when every note, every instrument was carefully thought out, down to the last detail, a time when music was made simply right.
The EP's artwork, created by painter, trumpeter and percussionist Walkind Rodriguez, represents with colors and shapes blending together to create oneiric flames, archetypal symbol of the band's soul, whose name is derived from a Hebrew word meaning 'fire'.

If you love music done with care, of musicians who pour their hearts and souls into every note, then you won't want to miss out on ÈCH's latest release. So sit back, close your eyes, and let the sound wash over you.

Back in stock !

First Word Records is very proud to present a brand new full-length album from Kaidi Tatham. 'It's A World Before You'.

Following on from two EPs released on First Word last year ('Changing Times' and 'Hard Times'), Kaidi has delivered us thirteen tracks that deftly illustrate his various talents as a multi-instrumentalist.

Kaidi is probably best known for his work with Bugz In The Attic, though his musical contributions over the years have also included Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler, Chris Dave, Macy Gray, King Britt, DJ Spinna, Mr Scruff and IG Culture to name but a few! In recent times, he's worked with DJ Jazzy Jeff on a variety of projects, including his most recent album 'M3', touring Europe for Jeff and Will Smith's reunion shows, and on the PLAYlist album 'Chasing Goosebumps', with Glenn Lewis, Stro Elliot (The Roots), Masego, Maimouna Youssef, Rich Medina, Daniel Crawford and more.

All this in addition to heating up dances around Europe with his inimitable DJ sets, and working heavily with First Word label-mate, Eric Lau (who also mixed this album) on a variety of projects, and adding releases to his already impressive catalogue on 2000 Black, Eglo and Theo Parrish's Sound Signature, with regular compadre, Dego (who features on the album's title track).

This album personifies Kaidi's diverse palette of sounds - bar Eric & Dego's features, every piece of music is played by himself. Largely flowing on a broken beat rhythm section, Kaidi effortlessly incorporates washes of afro, latin and funk throughout. From the harmonics of 'Your Dream Don't Mean A Thing', to the breakneck funk of 'Outta Audah', each and every riddim exudes energy. But this isn't simply a bruk record. The album is laced together with downtempo beats and future jazz interludes throughout, and some sweet synth boogie is never very far away, especially on the weighty vibes of 'It's About Who You Know'. To top it all off, there's two delightful nuggets of hip hop soul - Mancunian label-mates, Children of Zeus, feature on the neo-soul vibes of 'Out Here On My Own', and there's a feature from Amir Townes, better known as Uhmeer - an upcoming MC from Philadelphia, and son of one Jazzy Jeff Townes - who rides a sub-heavy, piano-led slice of boom bap, voicing an assortment of characters to tell the tale of 'Cupid'.

'It's A World Before You' is set to cause serious damage to sound-systems over the Summer, and show and prove once again the skills of one of the UK's best unsung musical talents, Kaidi Tatham.

Reissue of the oud / viola virtuoso SIMON SHAHEEN's interpretations of pieces by one of the Middle East's most important 20th Century composers, MOHAMED ABDEL WAHAB. Produced by BILL LASWELL, remastered for vinyl at D&M Berlin.

MOHAMED ABDEL WAHAB (1902-1991) was "a giant in the world of Middle Eastern entertainment" (Al Jadid Magazine) - as singer, actor and composer – and is commonly considered "the father of modern Egyptian song". After a visit to Paris, he revolutionized the film industry by introducing the genre "musical film" to the Arabic world, the movie "The White Rose" in which he starred broke all records and to this day is frequently presented in Cairo's cinemas. But in 1950, WAHAB left the film industry to focus on singing and composing – he wrote over 1800 songs (among others for Umm Kalthoum, an iconic artist in the Arabic music in her own right) that were deeply rooted in classical Arabic music but also laid the foundation for a new era of Egyptian music as WAHAB was open to Western elements such as waltz rhythms or even rock'n'roll in Abdel Halim Hafez's song "Ya Albi Ya Khali". He also composed several national anthems (Tunisia, Oman, Libya, United Arabic Emirates) and re-composed the Egyptian national anthem "Belady Belady Belady", based on the original by Sayed Darwish. WAHAB received several decorations of Arabic states, and at his death in 1991, Egypt honored its famous son with a huge military funeral at the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo, the six-horse carriage procession carrying his coffin was actually led by the prime and foreign ministers, followed by the ministers of defense, interior and culture!


SIMON SHAHEEN (born 1955) is the perfect choice for WAHAB's compositions. Born into a family of gifted musicians, he learned playing the oud at the age of 5 and the violin shortly thereafter. He earned degrees in Arabic literature and music performance at the Tel Aviv University, and later pursued further studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and after his emigration to the USA (in 1980) at the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University. SHAHEEN lives in New York where he founded the Near Eastern Music Ensemble and Qantara, a formation that blends traditional Arabic Music with elements of Jazz and classical music, and he also has been organizing the Annual Arab Festival of Arts called Mahrajan al-Fan since 1994. The same year he received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts at the White House. Solo albums like Saltanah (Water Lily Acoustics), Turath (CMP) or Taqasim (Lyrichord) underline his importance as one of the most significant Arab musicians, performers, and composers of his generation. His work incorporates and reflects a legacy of Arabic music, while it forges ahead to new frontiers, embracing many different styles in the process. SHAHEEN has participated in many cross-cultural musical projects with artists as diverse as Henry Threadgill, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, or the Jewish klezmer ensemble The Klezmatics, contributed to the soundtracks for The Sheltering Sky and Malcolm X and composed the entire score for the United Nations sponsored documentary, For Everyone Everywhere, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Human Rights Charter. SHAHEENS biggest success was the Qantara album Blue Flame (2001) which has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards.

Besides all his activities as performer, he dedicates a good part of his time to working with schools and universities, including Julliard, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Yale, University of California in San Diego, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and many others.
The Music Of Mohamed Abdel Wahab was originally released in 1990 on Axiom, the record label curated by iconic producer and bass player Bill Laswell, and has been carefully remastered for this vinyl reissue at D&M, Berlin.


Press quotes:
"Master oud player and composer Simon Shaheen finds the perfect mix on this collection of Mohammed Abdel Wahab's pieces … seven wonderful interpretations sparkling with oud and strings interplay." Stephen Cook / AllMusic


"Shaheen's violin soars over a slicing string section and a bed of percolating percussion, while accordion, oud, finger cymbals and a chorus of singers weave in and out. Produced with sparkling clarity by Bill Laswell … this record opens a new world of harmonic and melodic possibilities to ears accustomed to Western pop." Greg Kot / Chicago Tribune


Musicians:
Simon Shaheen: Oud, Violin, Viola
Najib Shaheen: Oud
Sheikh Taha: Accordion
Anton Hajjar: Ney
Paula Bing: Flute
Ramzi Bisharat: Tabla
Hanna Mirhige: Mizhar
Michael Baklouk: Daff
Bobby Farah: Sagat
Ibrahim Salman: Quanoun
Artemis Theodos, Gabriel Palka, Nessim Dakwar, Kamil Shajrawi: Violin
Mike Richmond: Double Bass
Michael Finkel, Vladimir Greenberg: Cello
Laura Shaheen, Louise Salman, Maurice Chedid, Nermine Rawi,
Simon Shaheen, Youssef Kassab: Chorus

Philadelphia's Sweet Pill write eruptive emo songs that embrace the
edges of pop and hardcore
The kind of band whose members are fully immersed in their local scene-through
a handful of notable side projects and the show- promoting Philly staple 4333
Collective- the quintet's sound takes wide- spectrum influence from its
environment. The result is an amalgam of complex song structures and
flourishes of technical acumen, wholly unconcerned with genre, yet evoking the
specific styles of touchstones such as Paramore and Circa Survive.
On their debut longplayer Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill's unbound, raucous
energy presents through ten autobiographical tracks that hinge on singer Zayna
Youssef's elastic, enrapturing voice- at times belting and controlled, at others
textural and guttural. Supporting Youssef are guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean
McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. Their blistering lead
single "Blood" sees Youssef exploring a deteriorated friendship over Williams and
McCall's trudging riffs and tactful counterpoint, with Cullen and Kearney rumbling
nimbly in the song's foundations.
Second single "High Hopes" counters with introspective, melodic punk that
reshapes anxiety rather than succumb to it. But third single "Diamond Eyes"
momentarily slows the pace, with McCall joining Youssef on vocals for a breakup
lament laden with acoustic sentimentalism and an emotive flurry from guest
flutist Jill Ryan. Such range is the central facet of Where the Heart Is, where
Sweet Pill's penchant for combining punkish tropes enlivened with the vibrance of
math- rock and the aggression of post- hardcore sweetened with pop sensibility
compound into something stylistically new yet still familiar. Pressed on 180-gram
Red color vinyl

Kontinuierlich hat sich Wolfgang Haffner weiter in das Vorderfeld der Top-Schlagzeuger gearbeitet. Deutschlands einziger Jazz-Superstar mit Pop-Anklängen, der Trompeter Till Brönner mag genauso wenig auf ihn verzichten wie Nils Landgren, wenn er Abba den Funk verordnet.
Norwegens aufregendste aktuelle Stimme im Jazz, Rebekka Bakken holt ihn immer wieder in ihre Band und selbst die No Angels riefen ihn an, als es an die Produktion ihrer Konzert-DVD ging. Die letzten Veröffentlichungen des Schlagzeugers waren aus den Jazz-Charts vieler Länder nicht wegzudenken.
Neben der Virtuosität des Instrumentalisten Haffner darf man aber nicht vergessen, dass er ein ausgezeichneter Songwriter, Arrangeur und Produzent ist. Auf seinen eigenen Alben hat er diese Fähigkeiten bereits zur Genüge angedeutet, mit dem vorliegenden Album jedoch liefert Haffner sein Meisterstück ab. Durchaus seinen Helden wie Pat Metheny, Esbjörn Svensson oder auch Dhafer Youssef verpflichtet, gelingt es ihm, eine überzeugende Mischung aus innovativen Sounds, tragfähigen Melodien und brillantem Gruppensound zu erzeugen, die erstmals rein europäische Züge hat.
Dabei hat er die Creme de la Creme europäischer Jazz-Musiker wie selbstverständlich zu einem Sound geformt, der das Zeug zum Klassiker hat. Die flirrenden Gitarrensounds von Martin Koller (Rebekka Bakken Band), elektronische Effekte, die an die besten Momente aktueller skandinavischer Produktionen erinnern, hier und da kompromisslose Rocksounds (»Corazon«) und natürlich auch immer wieder Jazz Soli auf höchstem Niveau. Trompeter Till Brönner trägt mit seinem Flügelhorn – Solo dazu bei, dass »Shape Of Peace« zu einem atmosphärischen Highlight gerät.
Der magische Sprechgesang von Rebekka Bakken macht »Somewhere Else« zu einem andachtsvollen Moment des Albums, in »Momo's Dance« werden die Basslinien von Tim Lefebvre spielerisch leicht von Nils Landgren an der Posaune umtanzt, »Seventy Five« glänzt durch Reminiszenzen an Krimis der 70er Jahre. Immer wieder sind es aber auch die elektronisch verfremdeten Sounds z. B. von Saxofonist / Bass Klarinettist Johannes Enders, die »Zooming« so zeitlos und aktuell erscheinen lassen. Andererseits hat noch kein Album des Nürnbergers derart facettenreiche Schlagzeug-Sounds eingefangen, man staune nur über die intelligente Einbettung seines Solos in dem Stück »Metropolis«, die in keiner Weise aufgesetzt sondern einfach nur organisch wirken.

Musikexpress:
"Statt der Zurschaustellung seiner Trommelkünste steht hier das Bemühen um einen homogenen Gesamtsound im Vordergrund. Dabei zeigt sich Haffner hier sowohl als cleverer musikalischer Architekt, der getragene Themen und flächige Strukturen effektvoll mit lebendigen Clubgrooves kontrastiert, als auch als sensibler Klangmaler. Elemente aus Ambient, Elektronik, Fusion, Drum'n'Bass und gelegentliche Worldmusic-Tupfer addieren sich hier zu einem eleganten und sehr europäi- schen Nu-Jazz-Entwurf (…) Wahrlich coole Musik, die dem Hörer ihre Brillanz nicht sofort an den Kopf schmeißt, sondern ihre subtile Kraft und Klasse nach und nach offenbart"

Stereoplay:
"Aktuelle Euro-Sounds statt abgenudelter US-Fusion - so lautet hier das Programm von Deutschlands bestem Allround-Drummer. Mit Tim Lefebvre, Bass, und vier wechselnden Keyboardern legt Wolfgang Haffner eine fabelhafte Basis für Johannes Enders' oft elektronisch verfremdetes Gebläse und die E-Gitarre von Martin Koller. Nils Landgren, Till Brönner und Rebekka Bakken setzen schöne Akzente in den Tracks, die Electro-Jazz mit HipHop poetisch verschmelzen."

“TINDOUF” is Savana Funk’s visionary new album. Eight tracks of powerful and psychedelic grooves recorded live on analog tape.

Known for their explosive live sound they have managed to fully capture the gutsy experience and raw energy of their show with a vintage aesthetic and a deep interplay cultivated with over a thousand concerts and countless hours playing together. The original line-up of Aldo Betto on guitar, Blake C. S. Franchetto on bass, and Youssef Ait Bouazza on drums has now expanded to a quartet adding Nicola Peruch on keyboards.
Nicola has worked with the band since their first album and finally become an official member being involved in all the phases of this release, from composing to recording.

The world-renowned trombonist Gianluca Petrella from Bari appears on one of the tracks, an acquaintance made by Savana Funk at the ‘Jova Beach Party' where the band left its mark during their live performances which included jams with Jovanotti in front of tens of thousands of people.

Max Castlunger, a percussionist from South Tyrol, has already been a guest on the band’s first album. Here, he is present on nearly every track, contributing greatly to the album’s soundscape. Furthermore, Elena Majoni is the violinist on the title track.

Up to kick off 2021 in the most adequately frenzied, thoroughly corrosive fashion, DDS04 serves up a quintet of chrome-tanned, hi-velocity beats courtesy of Italian hardware fetishist Anna Funk Damage (previously heard on the likes of Mind Records, Lux Rec, Lazy Tapes and more) and Austrian-Hungarian outfit Dutch Courage - alias Superskin & Új Bála - each of whom step up to the plate to deliver an exquisitely ear-wormy slice of their deranged industrial gospel.

A-side starts off to the sound of AFD's hard bouncin' "48 Hours Death" - a raw-cooked deluge of head-reducing EBM grit, flaring binary signals and Giallo-infused arpeggios out a blood-stained Suspirian tale. Fear for the deadly scalp hunters lurking in the club's darkest nooks, they've just sniffed out your trail.

Brutal churner "Youssef" picks up the torch and pulls out the quake-inducing breaks without further ado, dressed out with languorous Orientalistic melodies and steely distortions tailored to bend mind by the dozens. Forged in the furnace, the full-out punk-minded "I Come From Fire" rounds off the side on a drum and bass-heavy note, drawing as much from 60s psych-garage as it does from 80s deconstructionist tape music.

Flip sides and here's Budapest unit Dutch Courage taking the reins with the off-kilter treat "Hand Of The Sword" - navigating a weird zone of its own, floating astride post-apocalyptic Bristol bass, sliced-and-diced abstraction and overly textured yet equally bone-bruising riddims.

Wrapping up the journey with both force and serenity, "Neo-Soulmates" follows a similar path with its warped synth flexions and raucous machine cries making the rounds from one end of the spectrum to the other effortlessly, merging to give birth to something genetically contrasting from any contemporary. A most fitting finale to an EP that celebrates and encourages sonic bizarro in all its forms and manifestations.

Delving into the recent past in order to revisit forward-thinking projects that, owing to the social, musical or outright political climate, struggled to find an audience, Lost Futures returns with a record from Cairo based project, PanSTARRS. An assured and intriguing blend of post-punk and electronics, 'Ghaby Ghaby Ghaby' is the confident and personal work of Youssef Abouzeid, a fixture within Egypt's unique underground music scene.

"At the time, I was actively occupied by arguments on the fusion of culture in creative context, specifically between western and arabic elements." recalls PanSTARRS founder, Youssef Abouzeid. "The goal was to find a point of natural expression within Arabic songwriting that meets electronic guitar music, and put out something seriously inspired by both and easy on my ear."

By far the heaviest release from the PanSTARRS project at the time, 'Ghaby Ghaby Ghaby' immediately establishes a superior sense of rhythm. 'Khally Balak Hatmoot' practises instant hypnosis, Abouzeid's earnest vocals beckoning outsiders forward over a layer of feedback occupied by a ghostly shift, one which breaks to release a crescendo of post-punk guitar. This sense of subtle drama continues on 'Men Gheir Wa7da', demonstrating a skill for songwriting that recalls the uncompromising approach of The Birthday Party or Lydia Lunch.

'Tortit Naml' is driven by skittish, rapid-fire drums and tense guitars, either subverting or confirming it's subtly anthemic status with a dramatic explosion of feedback. 'Sala Ya Khaifa' brings respite, a mellow and earnest slow-burner, the bubbling spoils of the PanSTARRS studio providing a wistful texture drenched in reverb. Finally, '70mar 3ala 7osan' sees Abouzeid give his voice over to those same machines, burying his barbed perspective in contrary analogue bliss.

Half a decade later, Abouzeid's optimism and experimentation are certain to resonate on a scale beyond that of Cairo's defiant underground music scene.

"Working on everything myself, I enjoyed total creative freedom and kept an organic flow of dirt and error, which was key on this record", recalls Abouzeid. "Sometimes vocals were recorded as lyrics came spontaneously, sometimes written on paper and then recorded on first takes, but I always prioritized the moment while keeping the perspective in check."

With his seventh studio album, Shapes of the Fall, Piers Faccini, pursues his passion for the kind of cross-cultural dialogues that have long been heard on Mediterranean shores throughout the centuries, bridging southern Europe with the Near East and Africa. Although the songs are written and sung in English, the musical influences in Shapes of the Fall draw heavily on Faccini's own Mediterranean ancestry, creating a musical voyage whose geography varies from song to song, crossing multiple frontiers with his voice over the course of the journey, from the snow tipped anglo-american Folk registers of songs like Paradise Fell or Together Forever Everywhere to the eerie desert blown notes of Middle Eastern or north African modes in tracks like Firefly or Dunya. Ruin or repair and hope or despair are the album's parallel narratives and if shapes of the fall are the myriad endangered forms that make up the mosaic of our environmental collapse, the descent, Faccini sings, is of our doing or undoing. ''Bring me my home back'' the chorus of the album's emblamatic opening song They Will Gather No Seed is not then, the singer's personal cry for a home but the animal lament of innumerable species on the brink of extinction. Faccini who has previously collaborated with cellist Vincent Segal for their 2014 duo album Songs of Time Lost has collaborated over the years with musicians far and wide in search of musical dialogue such as Ballake Sissoko, Ibrahim Maalouf or Jasser Haj Youssef. Two exceptional voices feature on the album; Californian singer-songwriter Ben Harper, a collaborator from his 2005 album, Tearing Sky and Moroccan singer and master of the trance traditions known as Gnawa, Abdelkebir Merchane. The album was co-produced by Piers Faccini and Fred Soulard.

After years of playing with the Moroccan community of Brussels, music maker and jazz musician Luc Mishalle knows every trick of the cross-fertilization of gnawa music, jazz & brass. Gnawa is the Northern African islamic sufi music with healing vibrations and spiritual lyrics, played by the descendants of African slaves. The album title 'Beats & Pieces' refers to the collaborations with Belgian percussionist Roel Poriau (Think of One, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra), Tunisian electronic producer Sofyann Ben Youssef (Ammar808, Kel Assouf) and Moroccan-Belgian gnawa master Maalem Driss Filali. 'The album is significantly less 'jazz' than past collaborations with Byron Wallen and Trevor Watts,' explains Mishalle. 'It's based on gnawa songs I transcribed and arranged together. Half of the songs contain vocals, which makes it more radio-friendly.' There are also fragments of Beninese traditionals and which bring us to another thread through the album: trance. You can find it in gnawa music and even more in Benin, the cradle of voodoo. 'Trance music aims to create obsession through constant repetition. We kept the essence of that music, adding jazz and brass colours,' Mishalle finds these musicians in Brussels, and together they search for the sound of this city known for its hyper-diversity. 'Brussels' context is unique, in Belgium and beyond. Our metropole has quirky vibrations. To catch them, you have to fully submerge.'