Land Of Kush

Operating out of Montreal, composer and instrumentalist Sam Shalabi launched Land of Kush to probe Egyptian classical forms alongside Middle Eastern jazz inflections, drawing on a large roster of musicians to realize the concept. More than twenty players appeared on the project's 2019 album Sand Enigma.

Shalabi had spent nearly ten years inside Montreal's improvisation network before forming the group, at times crossing paths with the city's experimental rock community. He convened the expanded lineup for the 2009 debut Against the Day, which received assistance from Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Efrim Menuck and showcased dozens of musicians delivering Shalabi's genre-blending pieces. Constellation issued the recording, which was followed the next year by Monogamy, a murkier and more disoriented interpretation of the first album's palette. The Big Mango surfaced in 2013 as the third release, and six years afterward Sand Enigma delivered the sharpest realization of Shalabi's approach to date through its vivid, celebratory, and wide-ranging textures.