Buy link: va.lnk.to/LeGramAndSaive_MiCorazon_ATribeCalledKotori
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 electroacoustic 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 flavors 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 4×4 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.
Release date: May 26th, 2023.