Ishtirak

This debut album is an improvised masterpiece coming to us out of Beirut, the city that has suffered so many disasters and yet still manages to survive and flourish, as you can hear from this stunning piece of sonic art. Ishtirak are a trio of virtuoso improvisers featuring Lebanese multi-instrumentalist Samah Boulmona (lead synth), Asian-American Dylan Hunter Chee Greene (drums and percussion) and Jeremy Thai (French horn, melodica, synthesizers). Their name translates from Arabic as ‘communication/participation’ though in Lebanon, it also refers to the strong ‘two-phase electricity cable that connects you to… a generator,’ often privately run by local gangsters, which intermittently powered their studio in Beirut for these sessions. From the explosive momentum established by the opening piece ‘mtallat’ to the beautiful valedictory lament of the final track ‘feels like leaving’, it’s totally addictive. Discover an electronica soundscape teeming with labyrinthine synth lines, quarter tones and changing moods of Arabic maqam, crunching psych rock, rippling French horn and shifting rhythms… stomping beats morphing into skittering abstraction. The trio potently chose this quote to sum up the work: ‘For a brief moment the entire future was contained in my mind in the form of a lightning flash that illuminates the enormity of the unknown,’ from Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani (assassinated alongside his 17-year-old niece in Beirut 1972 by Israeli intelligence agency Mossad).