Praed

Founded by Lebanese visual artist and musician Raed Yassin and Swiss musician Paed Conca in 2006, Praed is a band whose music can be described as a mixture of Arabic popular music, free jazz, and electronics. Over the years, the duo has collaborated with renowned musicians from across the globe. Praed explore the terrain of shaabi (Arabic popular music) and its interconnectedness with other hypnotic music genres. Through their research and thanks to numerous concerts in various Egyptian cities, Conca and Yassin discovered a strong cultural connection between shaabi sounds and the mouled music played in religious trance ceremonies. The hypnotizing psychedelic effect embedded in this genre incited Praed to explore other popular music from around the world that also employs forms of sonic delirium -- free jazz, space jazz, and psychedelic rock, among others -- and incorporate these in their own musical concoctions. This is the duo's fourth album.

File under: dabke, shaabi, Arabic, free jazz. RIYL: Rizan Said, Omar Souleyman.