Persian Gulf Command

The main instruments in Baluchi music are recorded on this album –the most prominent (the sorud fiddle), the oldest (the doneli double flute), and the most recent and brilliant (the benju zither)– that presents the art of a freedom-loving nomadic people, living from hand to mouth and always on the move.

An underground icon throughout the Arab world, vocalist Yasmine Hamdan presents her mesmerizing debut solo album - an elegant mutant strain of electro folk, inspired by various Middle eastern traditions - written and produced in collaboration with Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague. Yasmine first became known with Soapkills, the duo she founded in Beirut, which was probably the first indie/electronic band to appear in the Middle East. The music of Soapkills quickly became the soundtrack to the vibrant, young arts scene which developed in postwar Lebanon and elsewhere in the Arab world. On moving to Paris Yasmine worked with CocoRosie and French electronic music producer Mirwais. The inspiration for the melodies and the lyrics of her music comes from the great Arab women singers of the mid-20th century and the mischievous sensuality and the subtle, ironic social criticism which pervades their lyrics. Yasmine's vocals are connected to traditions of Arabic music but the structures and arrangements of the songs are very remote from its codes.

Recorded in Madrid in July 2017, Shamal Wind combines Chip Wickham’s globetrotting, spiritual jazz expeditions with hard-won schoolings in the funk. Following his critically acclaimed 2017 debut, La Sombra, the record draws on spiritual jazz influences like Yusef Lateef and Sahib Shihab, and rests on Chip’s many-sided experience as a musician, spanning left-field beat experiments to hard-hitting funk heavyweights.