His Batagraf percussion project with Helge Norbakken from Jon Hassell’s group (playing djembe, talking drum, sabar, garong) — inspired by Wolof, Yoruba, Cuban, Arab music — with singing and poetry. Check it!
His own selection from two ECMs and an Emarcy — subverting the big-band tropes second-nature to a large improvising ensemble. ‘Inspired by Gil Evans, Claus Ogerman and Oum Khalsoum.’
The Siwan collective, with a new lead singer, Mona Boutchebak from Algeria, in settings of the poetry of Al Andalus, exploring the correspondences between Arabic music, Andalusian classical music and European baroque music.
Siwan, the transcultural, trans-idiomatic musical collective — an Algerian lead singer, a kemençe player from Turkey, an Iranian master of the tombak, an innovative Norwegian drummer, and an energetic string section of baroque specialists — setting verses by Ummayad princess Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (1010-1091) and contemporaries including Ibn Zaydun (1003-1071) and Ibn Sara As-Santarini (1043-1123).