Lekhfa

Maryam Saleh and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh's musical alliance does not come as a surprise – not only because they are married, but because their singing styles match each other well. Priding herself of being a singer who never formally trained, Saleh emulated influences from all sides of Arabic music and, in fact, is now a master of them all. One of her main influences was the Egyptian satirist and political singer Sheikh Imam, who is still mostly banned from Egyptian state media, and who was a family friend. The boyish voice of Abu Ghazaleh complements her vocals, while Maurice Louca, an innovative electronic musician, makes a natural third member. His keyboard harmonies have lured the couple into mellifluous duets and even anthemic multitrack choruses, accompanied by Abu Ghazaleh on oud or buzuk and Louca sometimes switching to electric guitar. Louca also brings in trance dance sections with rhythmical samples from Egyptian Sufi music and from mahraganat or electro-chaabi. One of the standout tracks, ‘Ekaa Maksour’ (Broken Rhythms) features all these. This is a truly innovative album, which might turn out to be one of the most important Arabic recordings of the decade.