‘One of the most important Arabic composers of the twentieth century — writing for legends Umm Kalthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Sabah, Warda, and many others — leading his own Diamond Orchestra, with Omar Khorshid on guitar, Magdi al-Husseini on organ, Samir Sourour on saxophone, and Faruq Salama on accordion. During this decade, Hamdi fully realized an international, hybrid music which incorporated beat-driven Eastern-tinged jazz, theremin-draped orchestral noir, Khorshid’s searing guitar solos, and a buzzing, sitar-based, Indo-Arabic psychedelic exotica… some of the hippest music of the era, anywhere.’

‘Eleven groups in eight days in February 2020, on the eve of a global pandemic. A marathon recording session in a makeshift storefront studio in a 100-year-old building in the tiny Eastern North Carolina town of Fountain. Once the idea for the project was in place, Alice Vines of the Glorifying Vines Sisters started calling local musicians. It didn’t take her long to line up almost a dozen groups to come lift their voices and represent the region’s unique Sacred Soul traditions.’