Tunisian experimentalist Deena Abdelwahed creates a singular strain of music built from traditional, mutated rhythms and hypnotic sound design. To a lot of our readers, she’ll be a new name, but even though she is relatively new to the scene, her music has been supported and praised by some of experimental music’s key artists, including Acid Arab, Morphosis, Bachar Mar-Khalifé, and Débruit; and once you hear Abdelwahed’s new release on InFiné, titled Klabb, you’ll soon realize why.

Across four tracks, Klabb pushes a varied and forward-thinking sound, one that aims to deliver a message with its sonics. Opening cut, “Jalel Brick Rrumi,” for example, uses vocal samples taken from Tunisian activist Jalel Brick to convey a reference to Tunisian youth who have had to learn to use new lexical techniques to overcome everyday frustrations of the system; whereas, “Ena Essbab” (which means ‘Because of me’ in English) is inspired and composed for the queer community.

Alongside the release of the album, Abdelwahed will be playing alongside Alessandro Adriani, Natalia Escobar, Dis Fig, Illum Sphere, and Laura Clock at the opening of Berghain’s new floor named Säule—meaning “pillar” in German.

In support of the EP, InFiné has offered up “Ena Essbab” as today’s XLR8R download, available via WeTransfer below.

You can pick up Klabb via Infiné’s Bandcamp page.

Ena Essbab