Light meteors crashing around you will not confuse you

Saint Abdullah & Eomac rekindle their longstanding collaboration in this fiery new release sourced from the multiple cultural references and personal stories of its producers.

In their third installment entitled "Light meteors crashing around you will not confuse you", the New York-based Iranian-Canadian siblings Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh aka Saint Abdullah & Wicklow-based Irish producer Ian McDonnell aka Eomac continue their exploration of sounds and rhythms through an expansive use of sampling and heavy distorted beats. Passionately curious about diverse vocal and musical cultures as well as their own, the trio began their long-distance collaboration in 2019, releasing their first two albums, "Patience of a Traitor " (Other People) and "Chasing Stateless" (Planet Mu) in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

The trio recorded the album as the world witnessed the genocide on Gaza, Mohammad notes that all tracks were "recorded within a few weeks in October after the war broke out as we tried to keep our heads above water." The sound of Saint Abdullah is characterized by a keen interest to challenge cultural perceptions and expectations of diasporic narratives, by foregrounding sounds, field recordings, and sacred and profane music from the multiple worlds they belong to. They pay homage to the distinct influences, however sonically and culturally disparate, that have permeated their records and musical process so far. Together with Eomac, they continue a conversation shaped by their ever-growing sonic heritage and shared musical affinities. The inclusion of field recordings for example, often personal ones, are not ornamental but are integral parts of the whole album in which vocal samples are both used in moments of release or through thrusts of heavy beats, continually mirroring a state of unease.…

Reflecting on the recording process, Eomac notes that: "There is a strong influence and inspiration from hip-hop culture here. The beat-tape in particular. It's rough, raw; rhythms are direct and not overthought. The beats are heavy and distorted for the most part, often shifting and changing throughout a single track.This brings an intentional "ungroundedness" to the record and a sense of tension." Echoing this state of unsteadiness, Mohammad writes in a poem during the recording: "Those in the diaspora, are those that have left their home, by force, by will, somewhere in between. Are we the connective tissue that makes things more interesting?" Tracks like 'Bitch, I am Islam' and 'Rocknrallah' relieve some of the sense of disorientation but are no less poignant. In the former, 'Bitch, I am Islam', Mohammad uses old personal recordings of his sisters reciting the Quran or repeating Iranian revolutionary chants like "War war, until victory", an acknowledgment of the worlds they left behind and the ones that need building. In 'Rocknrallah' Abdel Ja7eem Hafeth sings a rendition of the 1933 American standard tune 'Smoke gets in your eyes' only to evoke the smoke coming out of Gaza.

The record also features fellow Iranian artists in the diaspora, musician and sound artist based in Paris Cinna Peyghamy and club experimentalist Aria Rostami. Ian Bruner, who worked on the album's artwork, created a composite of the different elements and motifs that form the album, an image of arduous travel towards the mirage of Americana. In this historic period of grief and anger, 'Light meteors crashing around you will not confuse you' musically and conceptually engages world systems and beliefs through the experiences and stories of its producers.

—Rayya Badran

All proceeds will go to Gaza (UNRWA)