Words fail me as I write my second review for this brilliant musician, Magdi Aboul-Kheir. Very seldom does a creative piece come along that makes me doubt my skill as a music reviewer and writer. Questions like, why is there even a need to justify music or any art form at all? Isn’t the language of music/art itself a universally understood, individually perceived language? The answer to these two questions is yes & yes. Then why define it for others? Because multidimensionality also comes with the shadow of overwhelm, ignorance, and even numbness. And in a world that seems to be moving further into an unknown darkness, the familiarity of a well-known, well-understood language often feels like home for the lost self. Magdi Aboul-Kheir’s latest album, ‘Slow Heat,’ feels like an illuminated pathway towards home. And given this chance to write a review of this brilliance is a privilege.
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The road on which ‘Slow Heat’ makes us walk through its ten songs feels really cosy. I know ‘cosy’ is perhaps the last word one would use to describe Magdi’s craft. But be with me on this and read along. The ten songs seem to have been crafted as different levels or steps on the journey to reach home. To me, home is the luminous final destination, even a state of mind, that each of us reaches in this journey of life. It’s a feel-good, blissful space within one’s own self that resides even among the differences & chaos outside. Each song of this album is like walking on a beach on a no-moon night, where every step is lit up in bioluminescence. As you dive deeper into the album, the music engulfs you in its otherworldly essence. Like swimming in the warm, dark, salty waters surrounded by the glowing plankton.
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I would like to believe that as the track list descends, the electronic ambient music gradually shifts into an organic one. At least, the songs Nectar, Inhaling You, One+One=One, and Skin Memory are about the remembrance of the origin. It blends organic instruments to give us the feel of merging back with nature, earth, and our body. While the title song, Slow Heat, and the rest, Pulse language, Lunar/Solar, Ascending Flow, Below Thoughts, and Interweave speak of waking up from a chaotic machine dream and transcending into an ambient electronic atmosphere. With varied instrumental pieces blending with electronica, the theme of ‘Slow Heat’ leads us in one direction, and that is the direction towards love. Magdi Aboul-Kheir’s music is quiet, cosy, filled with compassion, and carries the patience to be an instrumental meditation for all.
Magdi Aboul-Kheir is a cross-genre music lover and a German intellectual, shaped by his studies of German literature, theatre, musicology, and linguistics in Munich. Based in Ulm, Kheir works as chief reporter for one of southern Germany’s leading newspapers, and for over two decades now, he has written about film music. Follow his journey on Instagram and Facebook, and listen to his music on all major streaming platforms today!
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