Sand Enigma

Sun Ra Arkestra colliding with Arabic tropes and urban Cairo grit, Land of Kush almost literally smashes itself onto the increasingly congested stage of the global orchestra, with a stunning – though not easily digestible – balance of voice, solo flourishes and dramatic crescendo-laced extemporisations. This is music that envelopes centuries-old eastern melodies with the torn ligaments of contemporary living.

Best seen live, perhaps, when the avant-garde eccentricities would be seen as well as heard, Sand Enigma is never predictable or boring. Created by Egyptian-Canadian Sam Shalabi, who has released dozens of albums over the years under various monikers, the orchestra comprises over 20 musicians – an on-off cast of singers and players who pop up one moment to vanish, as if in a puff of smoke, the next. Amir Amiri's santur on ‘Ana’, is plangent and evocative, flowing smoothly into ‘Trema’ with a beseeching vocal (Nadah El Shazly) and soaring clarinet set in a quasi-classical Arabic form before loosening into vertiginous improvisation.

Sand Enigma will surprise and shock, its intimate melodies and tempered noise blending with gusto. This highly original East-West dissonant fusion will grow on you.