An unlikely yet inspired pairing if there ever was one, Cairo’s Aya Metwalli and Beirut’s Calamita (Tony Elieh, Sharif Sehnaoui, Davide Zolli) have created something truly unique with Al Saher. The latter is totally new to me, but Metwalli I’ve been following since I discovered her 2016 EP Beitak. She’s branched out into wildly new stylistic territory since then, experimenting with loops, uncanny effects, and a longform electronics-based approach to her solo sets that almost feels like death industrial at times (check this performance at MozBox), all of which sow the seeds for a fruitful collaboration with the Lebanese improv-rock trio. “Hazihi Laylati” begins with ringing Branca-esque strums wracked with microtonal tension, but by the halfway point there’s already been a generous freeform-freakout, a seamless slither into a killer groove, and a vocal re-entrance that couldn’t be more perfectly timed. Calamita sounds the most locked-in they’ve ever been, executing countless sudden rhythmic and/or tonal shifts with a precision that almost seems to contradict the confident looseness of their playing. The whole thing is pretty dark, especially the title track with its brooding ambience and bleak autotune deadpan, but the record’s tarab roots (Egyptian icon Oum Kalthoum’s songs were used as starting points) are still evident in its playful, total freedom of movement. The first time I listened I was busy and let a lot of it fade into the background—don’t make the same mistake! Al Saher demands, and rewards, rapt attention.
Noise Not Music 