Nadah El Shazly – Ahwar LP

Description

Nawa Recordings presentAhwar, the debut album byNadah El Shazly. Starting out singingMisfitscovers in a local punk band, then moving on to producing her own electronic tracks and making a name for herself in Cairo’s underground scene, Nadah El Shazly’s backstory is not that unusual. Her debut album on the other hand, is an entirely unexpected story. Two years in the making,Ahwar(Arabic for “marshlands”) is an otherworldly record, not unlike an abstract mythological story-tale. Opening with the mangled and filtered vocals of “Afqid Adh-Dhakira (I Lose Memory)”, like an alien dream, the drones of a bowed double bass lead the listener into a drum groove that lays the groundwork for El Shazly’s sultry and captivating presence. The Arabic prose lingers over interjections of slap-back delayed guitar twangs and an avant-garde arrangement of dissonant winds, horns, and seemingly random drum fills, ending with an eerie soundscape that wouldn’t feel out of place in a giallo classic. Composed, written, and produced by El Shazly herself in collaboration withThe Dwarfs Of East Agouza‘sMaurice LoucaandSam Shalabion co-composition and arrangement duties, the album was crafted across two continents, between Canada and Egypt, and features the crme of Montreal’s contemporary-classical and improvised music scene, most of whom are members of Shalabi’s ownLand Of Kushensemble. In between El Shazly’s five original tracks, the listener is treated to an abstract conversion ofSayyid Darwish‘s classic “Ana ‘Ishiqt (I Once Loved)”. El Shazly’s haunting vocal floats over broken kalimba and harp arpeggios which slowly intertwine with a free, bowed double bass improv to nestle within the breaks betweenYounes Al-Qadhi‘s early 20th century verses of love and betrayal. More than that, it is difficult to really describe, but imagine the worlds ofNico,Bjrk, andAnnette Peacockwith the Arabic language as their mother tongue, re-approached through acoustic avant-jazz harmony and re-constructed with a dash ofKamilya Jubran‘s modern styling of Arabic maqam and you may be somewhere close. Recorded and delicately mixed through miles of analog cabling byThierry Amarand mastered byHarris Newman, the album is adorned with the surrealist artwork of Egyptian artistMarwan El-Gamaland designed with custom typography by Egyptian designerValerie Arif. Includes booklet featuring the lyrics in Arabic and English.