The ambitious project of Montreal-based composer and instrumentalist Sam Shalabi, Land of Kush enlisted a sizeable host of players to breathe life into Shalabi's experiments dissecting Egyptian classical music and strains of Middle Eastern jazz. Shalabi was joined by over 20 musicians on the project's 2019 album Sand Enigma. Shalabi was active in Montreal's improvisation scene for nearly a decade before beginning Land of Kush, sometimes intersecting with the city's experimental rock circles. He assembled the large ensemble in time to record their 2009 debut Against the Day. The album was made with help from Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Efrim Menuck and found dozens of musicians playing Shalabi's genre-melding compositions. It was released on the Constellation label and was followed the next year by Monogamy, a murkier and more disoriented reading of the sounds on the first album. Third record The Big Mango appeared in 2013 and six years later, Shalabi's vision reached its sharpest articulation to date with the vivid and celebratory tones of sprawling fourth release Sand Enigma. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi