SBKT060: ABADIR - Ison
Release date: 28th September 2023

Limited edition vinyl + digital

Artwork: Luke Griffiths
Photography: Omar Elkafrawy
Mastering: Raphael Valensi
Special thanks to Amira Elmasry

For our 60th release, we are very excited to present ‘Ison’, a new album by ABADIR.

Growing up in Heliopolis, Cairo, I used to visit different churches with my parents for Sunday mass and on Christian holidays. Fascinated with the choir and chants by various sects, I absorbed all these different sounds into one hybrid memory, which was the main inspiration for ‘Ison’. Using segments and field recordings from Coptic, Syriac, Maronite, Greek Orthodox and Catholic choirs, I present my own vision of what can be described as fresh hymns, fictional chants, or parts of a contemporary Sunday mass.

This is not representational. This is not a cultural relic for the exoticizing gaze. This is purely personal; a fictional sound rooted in the present.

While ‘Ison’ is clearly different from my last album, ‘Mutate’, it follows the same approach of revisiting cultural surroundings for potential mutation. If Mutate’s clubby vibe was made “to make the floor burn”, Ison is intended to cure last night’s hangover.

SBKT060: ABADIR - Ison

Taken from SBKT060: ABADIR - Ison
Release date: 28th September 2023

Limited edition vinyl + digital

Artwork: Luke Griffiths
Photography: Omar Elkafrawy
Mastering: Raphael Valensi
Special thanks to Amira Elmasry

For our 60th release, we are very excited to present ‘Ison’, a new album by ABADIR.

Growing up in Heliopolis, Cairo, I used to visit different churches with my parents for Sunday mass and on Christian holidays. Fascinated with the choir and chants by various sects, I absorbed all these different sounds into one hybrid memory, which was the main inspiration for ‘Ison’. Using segments and field recordings from Coptic, Syriac, Maronite, Greek Orthodox and Catholic choirs, I present my own vision of what can be described as fresh hymns, fictional chants, or parts of a contemporary Sunday mass.

This is not representational. This is not a cultural relic for the exoticizing gaze. This is purely personal; a fictional sound rooted in the present.

While ‘Ison’ is clearly different from my last album, ‘Mutate’, it follows the same approach of revisiting cultural surroundings for potential mutation. If Mutate’s clubby vibe was made “to make the floor burn”, Ison is intended to cure last night’s hangover.

SBKT060: ABADIR - Ison

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