Zohar

The mystery tour begins even before the CD is cracked and played: Zohar translates to "Sacred Light," and the album's title refers to a Kabbalistic numerical series. The band is built around the talents of Erran Baron Cohen and Andew Kramer, two London-based multi-instrumentalists who are inspired by their common Jewish heritage, plus assorted devotional traditions and Middle-Eastern musical styles. These sources are the epicenter of their kaleidoscopic techno and ambient soundscapes, adding a weighty soulfulness to the antic, fearless, yet oddly respectful amalgams that comprise the album. Sampled and manipulated voices of cantors, muezzins, and groaning Byzantine super-basses are heard, along with fervent exhalations from desert divas Oum Kalthoum and Dimi Mint Abba…