{"product_id":"أحمد-ahmed-samaa-audition","title":"أحمد [Ahmed] – Sama'a (Audition)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOtoroku \/ UK \/ 2025 \/ 2LP\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKnown for their exhilarating live-to-record albums such as last year's critically acclaimed Wood Blues and Giant Beauty, سماع [Sama'a] (Audition) is the first of two releases that will surface after [Ahmed]’s first studio recording sessions at North London’s The Fish Factory in early 2025.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince 2014, [Ahmed] أحمد have excavated and re-imagined the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik, in an ever ongoing search for future music. Over a decade on, the group were given the opportunity to set up in the studio for the first time and, with the aid of meticulous engineer Benedic Lamdin, سماع [Sama'a] (Audition) is the quartet's most detailed work to date.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFastidious fans may recognise the album's tracklisting as that of Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s Jazz Sahara. After his success collaborating with the pianists Thelonious Monk and Randy Weston, Jazz Sahara was the first record Abdul-Malik made as a leader and was released in 1958. It used the flame of late Fifties jazz to light the wick of North African folk music and acted as a reminder of the Arabic origins of jazz, creating a distinct, unique sound that was far beyond its time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Malik’s Jazz Sahara, there is no piano. The ongoing work of each member of [Ahmed] then is to think differently, to wonder how the music will work and to take a risk on trying it out - an extraordinarily compelling feat of imagination. Using group improvisation strategies and recording in single takes, سماع [Sama'a] (Audition) tackled the full suite of Jazz Sahara in just one session, with ‘Ya Annas [Oh, People’] and ‘Isma'a [Listen’] being previously unrecorded. 'Farah 'Alaiyna’, also released on 2019’s Super Majnoon, sounds unrecognisable - the slow, heady stomp and repeated phrasing of 2019’s embryonic [Ahmed] having been blast furnaced and sped up four-fold. The result is four kaleidoscopic, relative miniatures that move, unfold and re-imagine at a very different scale and proportion than [Ahmed]’s previous records. It’s a dizzying, euphoric music and an extraordinary record of a group moving through space-time like no other.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 350px; height: 350px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=219720476\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=333333\/minimal=true\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/ahmedquartet.bandcamp.com\/album\/samaa-audition\"\u003eسماع [Sama'a] (Audition) by أحمد [Ahmed]\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"ElMuelle1931","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57374724718936,"sku":"ROKU046","price":39.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0538\/4486\/9300\/files\/ahmd-ahmed-samaa-audition-4628029.jpg?v=1780150811","url":"https:\/\/www.elmuelle1931.com\/products\/%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-ahmed-samaa-audition","provider":"ElMuelle1931","version":"1.0","type":"link"}