{"product_id":"saet-el-hazz-the-luck-hour","title":"Maurice Louca - Saet El Hazz (The Luck Hour)","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1749431209\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/mauricelouca.bandcamp.com\/album\/saet-el-hazz-the-luck-hour\"\u003eSaet El Hazz (The Luck Hour) by Maurice Louca\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaurice Louca, one of the most gifted musicians and composers on Egypt's thriving underground music scene, announces his new album \u003cem\u003eSaet El-Hazz (The Luck Hour)\u003c\/em\u003e, to be released September 24, 2021 via Northern Spy and Sub Rosa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe forthcoming full-length album draws voraciously on Arabic music, psychedelic folk, and free improv and the lead single “Bidayat (Holocene)” mesmerises with a feral groove centered around percussion, guitar, and violin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title \"Saet el Hazz\" is a coded saying in Egypt to refer to a good time and usually implies a great deal of debauchery. “When you mention to someone that you’ve had a saet hazz, there are no questions asked. It is what it is.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe initial spark for \u003cem\u003eSaet El-Hazz (The Luck Hour)\u003c\/em\u003e was Louca’s desire to collaborate with “A” Trio, the Lebanese improvisational group featuring Mazen Kerbaj on prepared trumpet, Sharif Sehnaoui on prepared guitar, and Raed Yassin on prepared double bass. “When the three of them come together they create a sonic cosmos entirely their own. I started by composing music that I wanted to have exist within this sonic world— at times in harmony, or clashing with it, and all the emotional ranges in between.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust as “A” Trio served as the spark, a commission from Mophradat, an arts organization based out of Brussels, was the tinder. The commission was for a new composition to be performed using instruments that Louca would modify to play microtonally. This led him to Turkey and Indonesia. In Istanbul, he worked with a Lutheran to custom-make a guitar. In Surakarta, he ended up with an instrument maker tuning a Serang—referred to as the Indonesian xylophone, part of the family of Gamelan tuned percussion instruments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese new modified instruments opened up the compositions to new tonal possibilities which drove Louca to expand his line up to include Khaled Yassine, a longtime collaborator and versatile percussionist and drummer, Christine Kazaryan, a dynamic harpist whom he met via Praed Orchestra, and Anthea Caddy, a cellist who came highly recommended from the Berlin free improv scene.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“There is something about linking luck to decadence that resonates with me, and even if I can't fully articulate it in words, the drive behind the music of this album and how it came to be, and the energy between us at the studio rehearsing and recording it, was in a lot of ways for me a saet hazz.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSaet El Hazz (The Luck Hour)\u003c\/em\u003e is a long form composition of six movements, recorded over the course of a week in August 2019 at A\/B studios in Brussels.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667187462367,"sku":"CD-NS-143","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667187495135,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667187527903,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/NS143_cover-1-scaled-e1646413878562.jpg?v=1703789888","url":"https:\/\/shop.northern-spy.com\/products\/saet-el-hazz-the-luck-hour","provider":"Northern Spy Label Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}