Orchestrating New Genres

Montreal’s Land of Kush Pushes Musical Boundaries

Fringe ArtsBianca David — Published October 22, 2012

The man behind this grand endeavour is Sam Shalabi, prolific musician and composer who has performed as part of Shalabi Effect, Molasses and Detention, among others.

Shalabi himself has a difficult time describing his latest endeavour’s sound. The music is a blend of so many different elements, it’s hard to find a word that effectively categorizes their sound.

“In a weird way, I want to say that what I do is experimental, but I think that’s confusing for people,” said Shalabi.

When music is branded as ‘experimental’ people expect a certain thing and Shalabi feels his music doesn’t always fit the criteria.

“My motivation for experimenting is not to feel like I’m part of a style of experimentation, but more to learn and grow and take in new things, which to me is experimenting,” said Shalabi. “Art for art’s sake—I’m not really into that. It’s more to do something that’s interesting and challenging.”

Having never directed an orchestra before, figuring out the logistics of playing with so many people and composing music for such a large group provided him with a new challenge.

Land of Kush was formed in 2001 when Shalabi was asked to be a part of an Egyptian cultural night at Casa del Popolo. The idea for the group at the time was to bring together close to 40 musicians in an attempt to recreate the Egyptian orchestras of the ’60s and ’70s.

Though the response from that performance was good, Shalabi said he felt dissatisfied with the result and soon lost interest. The project fell by the wayside until 2006, when the idea came back to him. For a second time, he was asked to put the group together for a big-band night at Casa.

This time, instead of trying to recreate the Egyptian orchestras, Shalabi strived for a more modern Middle Eastern sound blended with elements of Western music in an orchestrated format.

“I don’t like music cultures very much as inspiration, especially for composition. I try to have a life outside of music. I’m interested in so many other things. In terms of the creative process, that’s very important.”
—Land of Kush Director Sam Shalabi

In 2009, Land of Kush produced their first recording for Constellation records called Against the Day. The album was inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name. Their second recording, Monogamy (2010), was inspired by Adam Phillips’ psychoanalytic book, also of the same name.

“Big inspiration has always been writing, literature,” he said. “Writers structure their work in different ways than musicians and it’s interesting to look at.”

Shalabi’s unconventional way of looking at the process of creating and structuring music is one of the reasons the end result falls outside of labels and categories.

“I don’t like music cultures very much as inspiration, especially for composition,” he said. “I try to have a life outside of music. I’m interested in so many other things. In terms of the creative process, that’s very important.”

Equally important is allowing the music to take on a life of its own. Shalabi said he doesn’t always know exactly what a piece is going to sound like when he’s writing it.

“Because the group is so big, what you write you can only imagine up to a certain point. When I started writing for the group, what I wrote would often not be what happened,” he said. “Part of it is that the music is composed, but there’s improvisation and people interpret the composition in different ways.

“The way that I look at this group is that yeah, I write the music, but I’m not the leader of the group. There are other members that take up responsibilities within the group. When people see us [live], they do get a sense that it’s something that’s organic. You feel like you’re part of something that’s happening right there.”

Land of Kush / Oct. 29 and Oct. 30 / La Sala Rossa (4848 St. Laurent Blvd.) / $11.00