Next up on A Tribe Called Kotori, label-affiliated band Le'Gram joins forces with Hanover-based producer Saive for a special round of incendiary electronics drenched in mystic Alhambrian vibes. The starting point to this four-handed project came with the release of Le'Gram 'Arabesque' EP back in 2021, leading to exchanges between the two artists and triggering off the idea for a collaboration. Driven by a common will to create something "new, fresh, and at the same time authentic", the pair got things underway and rapidly found their cruising pace.
A cross-cultural homage to Andalusia and flamenco, at the confines of Gypsy, Spanish and Arabic cultures, Le'Gram and Saive came up with a quartet of tunes that intend to explore all emotional states and dynamic ranges. Shaking and freshening up the concept of electro-acoustic music through four distinct movements of emotionally engaging blends, 'Mi Corazon' ('My Heart') is a stunningly graceful and masterly executed piece of music to dream your life away to.
Based on actual live guitar recordings by Vincent (Saive) and Gregory (Le'Gram guitarist), the EP tells a tale of uplifting beauty and mist-shrouded mystique, teleporting us from the middle of a teeming bazaar onto the top of a dune at sunset. An intricate meshwork of darbukkahs, processed muezzin-like chants and bewitching flutes wrap around a melancholic flight of riffs and strings straight out a Moorish tapestry, 'Mi Alma' is a mind-trip and cinematic soundtrack laced into one. Blazing with a more vivid fire at heart, 'Mi Corazon' finds Le'Gram and Saive blending the distinctly elegant and fevered pulse of flamenco with a gridlocked house groove, slowly but surely revealing its flavours as Tania She's vocals entice us down the path of nostalgia and a sense of hurtful romantic repentance.
Mixing the sensuality of reggaeton-adjacent talk with a proper 4x4 technoid swing where Dave Smith's mighty Pro-3 and Roland's time-proof Juno show their inimitable precision and versatility, 'Mi Sangre' is the EP's most openly floor-focussed weapon: a laser-guided chugger exploiting Le'Gram and Saive's trademark soulfulness to enslaving effect. Put in the hands of fellow ATCK crewman Elias Dore, 'Mi Sangre' morphs into the very definition of a big-room heater, doped up on spiritual elation and healing energies. Injecting the original's vibrantly poetic magnitude with the kind of purposeful, club-ready pizzazz that'll cut a wide swathe amongst ravers this busy summer festivals' season ahead, this one's all set and ready to storm the hottest systems within its reach.