Sam Shalabi is an Egyptian-Canadian composer, guitarist and oud player based in Montreal, who also spends long periods in Cairo. He started out in punk rock in the late 1970s and moved towards a music that combines Arabic maqam and shaabi with free improvisation, noise, jazz, electronics and spoken text. He is best known for the group Shalabi Effect and for Land of Kush, a large orchestra he composes for. Shalabi Effect began in 1996 as a duo of Shalabi and Anthony Seck and recorded for Alien8, including The Trial of St. Orange (2002) and Pink Abyss (2004).
2012 release ** It seems to me they are using the ’no wave/no new york’ format of a slightly more pop-like character, sans any vocals of course. Nervous hectic playing on all three instruments, but occasionally leaping into a bit of a rock mode, all …
Mont-real (Split) brings together Sam Shalabi and the duo of Mike Gangloff & Liam Grant for a two-track release on Carbon Records. The split, out October 24, 2025, showcases Shalabi's singular experimental approach alongside Gangloff and Grant’s free…
*Edition of 300* Shirk is the new AOR flavored free improvisation solo album by Sam Shalabi featuring Eric Chenaux and Nadah El-Shazly where Synth Pop and Sound Poetry fester. Sam Shalabi is an Egyptian-Canadian composer, improviser and guitarist liv…
"Sam Shalabi presents Isis And Osiris; a dystopian fantasia for ud ruminations and iterated tape manipulations. Listening to Sam's music or playing with him is always a psychedelic bliss. When Isis And Osiris penetrates my ears I am possessed by an…