Benhayyi Al-Baghbaghan (Salute the Parrot)

Salute the Parrot signals a departure for Maurice Louca from his first solo album Garraya - in which he composed electronic music unaccompanied - into the realms of acoustic orchestrations, both composed and improvised. Featuring guest performances by Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls, Alvarius B.), Sam Shalabi (Land of Kush, Shalabi Effect), Tamer Abu Ghazaleh (Alif), Khaled Yassine (Anouar Brahem/Alif) and vocals by Egyptian Mahraganat MCs Amr 7a7a and Alaa 50, to name a few. Those who may have heard live iterations of Salute the Parrot at Louca's jaw-dropping shows across the Arab world and Europe over the last couple of years, will encounter a much more complex and hard-hitting work of many influences. From psychedelic to Egyptian Shaabi, Louca shatters the confines of musical and cultural labeling with a work that is truly unique. The album's new live and acoustic elements, coupled with limited pre-recorded material, present ample space for improvisation and fluidity within it's composition. It's eight tracks offer a unique record of this new vision, and prepare the ground for future live performances of Salute the Parrot, which will never sound totally the same. For the design of the album artwork, Louca collaborated with Egyptian visual artist Maha Maamoun, whose videos and photographs address the form and function of images that are found in mainstream culture, to act as a lens through which familiar images are seen in novel and insightful ways. Salute the Parrot's artwork aptly conveys the abstract and microcosmic character of Louca's sound in three subtle variations, one for each of the album's formats.