Egypt: Natacha Atlas to release new EP in June

The EP was co-written, produced and recorded by Samy Bishai with contributions from Yazz Ahmed (flugelhorn), Jason Singh (beatbox and additional synths) and Alcyona Mick (piano).

Atlas is a multilingual singer known for weaving Western and Middle Eastern sounds. On the new release, the musician pushes her musical boundaries by brilliantly fusing the Middle Eastern maqam vocabularies with hip hop, jazz and electronica.

Atlas told Music In Africa that the new EP is an emotional and contemplative musical reaction to the challenges society continues to face since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The compositions symbolise our outer world that is physical in form or solid expression like a sculpture, but also chaos, fear, mistrust, separation and division, as we have seen through this pandemic,” she said. “However, they also call to the world to discover its inner nature through hope, meditation and prayer.”

The album’s lead single ‘The Outer’ was released on 14 May. The song fuses dark analogue bass synths, distorted beatboxing and Atlas’ transcendental melodic flow over Mick’s dissonant piano motifs.

“‘The Outer’ is an emotional and contemplative state that turns to hope, a revelation, an awakening, which connects to a timeless and universal truth evoked by sages and philosophers throughout the world and history,” Atlas said.

The upcoming EP follows her 2019 project Strange Days, and will bring the musician’s album tally to 12. The singer’s career spans more than two decades having released her debut album Diaspora​ in 1995.

The project adds to the 57-year-old musician's impressive list of accoldaes, which include multiple music awards such as a Victoire de la Musique trophy – the French equivalent of the Grammy Awards. She has also appeared on scores and soundtracks of numerous Hollywood blockbusters, including Sex & the City 2, The Hulk, Kingdom of Heaven, Brick Lane and Sahara.

Pre-order The Inner & The Outer here.