Arabesque

Spotted a few years ago by producer Mark Ronson to record a cover of ‘Uptown Funk’ at Abbey Road, the Scottish-Egyptian sisters returned to those studios to record their 2017 debut album for Decca, with a full symphony orchestra and a tracklist including Michael Jackson, ‘Greensleeves’, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Johann Strauss. It went to No 1, won them awards and concerts worldwide. This second album is more focused, an exploration of their Arabic-Celtic heritage, melding Western classical with Arabic strings and a Celtic feel across a repertoire that includes versions of songs by Sayed Darwish – opening track and lead single ‘El Helwa Di’ – as well as the spare brilliance of ‘Aatiny Al Naya Wa Ghani’ from the Fairuz songbook, highlighting the guitar of Giulio Romano Malaisi, trumpeter James Davison and Duncan Hemstock's clarinet. The sisters’ melding of the Celtic and Arabesque is most prominent on ‘The Scottish Egyptian’, its Celtic melody buoyed by Arabic percussion, and on the musky, mystery-drenched ‘Madad-Agios’. It's a rich, filmic, often dramatic orchestral crossover between worlds, ending with the lyrical lullaby that is final track ‘Nami Nami’, sealing the album's door as it softly closes behind you.