Boomkat 2025 July - 2

Ambient - 4

2025 - 2

paul2 - 9

What Came Before After

Ecstasy in Slow Motion

Pollution Opera - s/t
Cat. Nr: DN027
Format: DL / LP 
Release Date: April 24, 2024
Buy / stream: dansenoire.ffm.to/PollutionOpera 

Elvin Brandhi and Nadah El Shazly refuse to turn away from the horror. The intercontinental duo’s Pollution Opera album is an uncompromising futurist depiction of our disfigured, dystopian, and dying reality. Facing hell in full defiance, the experimental noise album catapults itself through a volatile compound of breathless shouts, screams, and screeches, in collision with vocal samples, environmental recordings, and acousmatic sounds. Ten tracks cover the spectrum of electroacoustic fragments and vocalizations, treacherously suspended between the roar of engines and synth distortion, of evocative intonations or guttural retching.

First conceived in 2020, Pollution Opera bubbled up organically from a first tandem motorbike ride through El Shazly’s hometown of Cairo. Singing and screaming through the second-loudest city in the world, Brandhi and Shazly found the extreme noise pollution served as catharsis from the suffocating smog that surrounded them. They then took these sonic specimens into studios across years and countries—from the initial recording and sessions in Egypt to Uganda, where their so-called “cacophony carbon orchestra” would carry into simultaneous but separate residencies at Nyege Nyege in Kampala. There, Brandhi and Shazly reprised the role of the motorbike as their “stage,” in a city where motorbikes are the main mode of public transport. They then developed a live A/V performance from video material captured by Arno Mery, collected from their travels, and reworked by Egyptian artist Omar El Sadek during Banlieues Bleues Festival 2023 in France.

The result is what the artists themselves describe as “an uncompromising world-spew, a shameless alloy of love and hate.” Haptic knocking, barking dogs, and human growls trample El Shazly’s famously evocative Egyptian singing style on “CRÎi Me A River.” Breathless vocal cut-ups and samples are bulldozed by arrhythmic acoustic percussion on “Danse Le Flou.” There are moments of respite within all the chaos, however, whether in the heavily pitched, Auto-Tuned opening of “Pollute Bold” or the wonderfully melodic closer of “Crisp Heart”—its derelict rhythmic thrust giving a listener something to dance about.


Both artists lend their unique positioning and idiosyncrasies to Pollution Opera, whether it’s in artist, vocalist, and musician Brandhi’s avant-garde noise music pedigree as both a solo artist and member of father-daughter duo Yeah You, or
singer, composer, and producer El Shazly’s hybrid catalogue combining electronic music with contemporary classical. Together, in asking the question of what a postmodern opera might sound like, the duo offer their existential answer in the true spirit of the often playful and ironic philosophical position by offering no answer at all. 

Voice & electronics: Elvin Brandhi & Nadah El Shazly
Violin on ‘Crisp Heart’: Ocen James
Soprano on ‘Attention’: Marie Requa Gailey

Artwork by Omar El Sadek & Niels Wehrspann 
Mastering by Rashad Becker

Pollution Opera

buy / stream

Pollution Opera - Cairo ???

Pollution Opera - s/t
Cat. Nr: DN027
Format: DL / LP
Release Date: April 24, 2024
Buy / stream: dansenoire.ffm.to/PollutionOpera

Elvin Brandhi and Nadah El Shazly refuse to turn away from the horror. The intercontinental duo’s Pollution Opera album is an uncompromising futurist depiction of our disfigured, dystopian, and dying reality. Facing hell in full defiance, the experimental noise album catapults itself through a volatile compound of breathless shouts, screams, and screeches, in collision with vocal samples, environmental recordings, and acousmatic sounds. Ten tracks cover the spectrum of electroacoustic fragments and vocalizations, treacherously suspended between the roar of engines and synth distortion, of evocative intonations or guttural retching.

First conceived in 2020, Pollution Opera bubbled up organically from a first tandem motorbike ride through El Shazly’s hometown of Cairo. Singing and screaming through the second-loudest city in the world, Brandhi and Shazly found the extreme noise pollution served as catharsis from the suffocating smog that surrounded them. They then took these sonic specimens into studios across years and countries—from the initial recording and sessions in Egypt to Uganda, where their so-called “cacophony carbon orchestra” would carry into simultaneous but separate residencies at Nyege Nyege in Kampala. There, Brandhi and Shazly reprised the role of the motorbike as their “stage,” in a city where motorbikes are the main mode of public transport. They then developed a live A/V performance from video material captured by Arno Mery, collected from their travels, and reworked by Egyptian artist Omar El Sadek during Banlieues Bleues Festival 2023 in France.

The result is what the artists themselves describe as “an uncompromising world-spew, a shameless alloy of love and hate.” Haptic knocking, barking dogs, and human growls trample El Shazly’s famously evocative Egyptian singing style on “CRÎi Me A River.” Breathless vocal cut-ups and samples are bulldozed by arrhythmic acoustic percussion on “Danse Le Flou.” There are moments of respite within all the chaos, however, whether in the heavily pitched, Auto-Tuned opening of “Pollute Bold” or the wonderfully melodic closer of “Crisp Heart”—its derelict rhythmic thrust giving a listener something to dance about.

Both artists lend their unique positioning and idiosyncrasies to Pollution Opera, whether it’s in artist, vocalist, and musician Brandhi’s avant-garde noise music pedigree as both a solo artist and member of father-daughter duo Yeah You, or
singer, composer, and producer El Shazly’s hybrid catalogue combining electronic music with contemporary classical. Together, in asking the question of what a postmodern opera might sound like, the duo offer their existential answer in the true spirit of the often playful and ironic philosophical position by offering no answer at all.

Voice & electronics: Elvin Brandhi & Nadah El Shazly
Violin on ‘Crisp Heart’: Ocen James
Soprano on ‘Attention’: Marie Requa Gailey

Artwork by Omar El Sadek & Niels Wehrspann
Mastering by Rashad Becker

Pollution Opera - Your Tracks Are Too Dark (ft. ZULI)

Pollution Opera - Danse Le Flou

Pollution Opera - CRÎ Me A River

Pollution Opera - Bite

Psychic Geography

Rooftop Blues

Ancient Rivers

Monsoon Reason

The opening track from usof's forthcoming tape on Theory Therapy. Out Jan 31 2025.

https://theorytherapy.bandcamp.com/album/stay-longer

@usofusofusofusof
Mastered by @ikezwanikken

usof - belly

Hiraeth

Comes with sunset

Beside Myself

Fishnets

Walking Memory

Remaining

Brussels-based composer Marc Melià makes waves on Vlek with reductionist palette across his new album 'Pièces Monophoniques'.

Read More: https://whenwedip.com/2025/05/premiere-marc-melia-vlek/

Follow: @marc_melia / @vlek

Connect: When We Dip on Spotify - open.spotify.com/user/whenwedip

www.whenwedip.com
YT: youtube.com/user/whenwedip
FB: facebook.com/wwdofficial
IG: instagram.com/whenwedip/
TW: twitter.com/WhenWeDip

Premiere: Marc Melià - In Simplicity We Trust [Vlek]

Thrilled to finally drop the 12th installment of the Mixes and Mashups Series

Thank you to everyone who helped in the making of this project!

Can't wait to bring you guys more, thank you all for listening. Love ya Happy 4th!

Comes with sunset

Sofie Birch