sea urchin: yaqaza

Sea Urchin is the Berlin-based brainchild of the Italian Francesco Cavaliere and the Egyptian-Austrian Leila Hassan. Being core members of the underground, they already released a 7" in 2012 on Das Andere Selbst and Solar Hype Dance in 2014 on Stenze Quo Musik. Cavaliere has also released Gancio Cielo (H 024LP, 2016) and Gancio Cielo 2 - Il Gruppo Respingi Comete (H 030LP, 2016) in 2016. Yaqaza is their long-awaited vinyl debut. The duo surprises with a multi-colored, mystic and intriguing collage of deconstructed pop hits, Italian music concrète, King Tubby-like dub and Algerian Rai. It is no coincidence that Yaqaza is Arabic for "daydream, reverie". The record is a virtual reality labyrinth in which the listener wanders around sleepwalking, constantly opening new doors and sliding between tableaux vivants. The poetic vocals by Hassan, alternately in Arabic and English, is an absent guide that takes the listener to ethereal micro-cosmoses. Dubby baselines, a cold drum computer, analog electronics and subtle tape collages come together in an intriguing and wondrous web of unravelling side plots. Yaqaza is a magic realist frame narrative. The side roles are performed by Sicilian salt miners, Bolaji Badejo (actor of the "alien" in Alien (1979)) or Cheba Nouria (an Algerian pop star).