"Slow-burning? That's actually in keeping with our overarching theme of slow-moving," says Alex Reeve, one of the multi-instrumentalists behind the British band Hejira, who has quietly been building quite a fan base with their album Prayer Before Birth, released towards the end of 2013. "We're about sustainability," he continues. "We don't want to be a flash in the pan and a quick success. It felt like an achievement just getting released. Hopefully the next record this year, it's about building slowly on the foundation we've created. It's all very exciting still, but you have to make sure you don't get frustrated and that you embrace where we are."
That makes Reeve and his bandmates sound as though they’re new to the music business, but nothing could be further from the truth. The four London musicians – Reeve, Alexis Nunez, Sam Beste and Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne, who between them come from English, Ethiopian, Hungarian, Chilean and German heritages – have been individually making waves in the industry for some time, performing with the likes of Amy Winehouse, Tom Jones and Nitin Sawhney, and they’ve been playing music for even longer, being educated in classical and jazz – something that explains the unusually complex arrangements and chord structures, and their willingness to go beyond the confines of standard songwriting.
“I’ve known Sam and Alexis from more than a decade, growing up playing together in different guises,” says Reeve. “I think the fact that it was a slow process is reflected in the sound – we’re not the kind of band that gets in a room with our instruments and plays a three-minute song. Because it started off quite ambiguously, it was kind of: where was this going, was it going to be lyrical, cinematic, instrumental?”
Those are questions that remain unanswered in the album, an impossible-to-categorise mix of ethereal, spooky layering and driving guitar, all brought together by the production magic of the visionary electronic producer and composer Matthew Herbert. Few of the songs have what you would call a memorable hook or chorus, though the listener is engrossed in the moment by the hypnotic choruses and leitmotifs.
“Sam and I were working together trying to find a way to compose that we hadn’t before,” says Reeve. “We’d all been in lots of songwriting sessions with other musicians, and it can be a very generic process, so we were each trying to tap into what the other people were thinking – trying to have almost a consciousness within the whole group.”
How to describe, then, this rather lovely album, written together over a couple of years and recorded in a house rather than a standard studio. Echoey, complex, dark, occasionally sinister and menacing, certainly. There are shades of Bat for Lashes here, in the mesmeric hooks and in Debebe-Dessalegne's pure, piping voice, almost always singing in unison with Beste. There's some of Radiohead's grandiosity of harmonic ambition, particularly in one of the more grabby songs, Powercut. There's a touch of PJ Harvey's dark, twangy satire in Pinter. You can even discern some Dead Can Dance in the rhythmic, medieval-sounding modally harmonised Litmus Test, the album's opener. Then add a touch of the twisted electronic music of The xx or Four Tet, the slow crackle of Dummy-era Portishead and the gloomy guitars of The Cure, and you might get there, just about.
“There are so many influences,” says Reeve. “I think what was quite important was harmonic influences, because we all grew up listening to jazz, so trying to bring in the harmony or ambiguity was always something we were keen to harbour and grow and nurture, instead of the same harmonic chord progressions. We wanted to escape the song structure and form, so you’re not quite sure on the key, or the progression. That definitely comes from symphonic and jazz music, where it is very harmony-based.”
One obvious influence, though, is Joni Mitchell's seminal album Hejira, after which the band is partly named. While the melodic and narrative elements of Mitchell's album are eschewed here, there is nevertheless something of the haunting elasticity of her phrasing that finds its way into Prayer Before Birth. "I don't think we'd have come across the word 'hejira' if it wasn't for the Joni record," admits Reeve. "We're all big Joni fans, and Rahel really liked the name. There's a certain warmth to it. I think it misleads people – because it's an Arabic word, people think we play world music – but I like the symbolism of it because of the journey or the movement. As individuals, we all felt collectively lost, and were able to move in the right direction together, and that's the heart of the record – finding one's way. I hope that comes through."
One way in which Prayer Before Birth is a million miles from Hejira, though, is in the complexity of the instrumental arrangements. Four people together in a band is one thing, but when you hand over the reigns to Matthew Herbert on production, it's not going to be a stripped-down result.
That’s not to say it’s over-produced – indeed, they went to lengths to ensure that the record sounded warm and somewhat imperfect, with crackles and timing imperfections.
“We like to call it ‘the dust’,” says Reeve. “It makes it feel kind of organic – these days things can become so digital. There was a lot of analogue involved and we liked that warmth. I don’t want to say old – I don’t think we’re retro – but I like the idea of moving forward but also remembering history. We’re very much about process and trying to make the process evident in the final song itself.”
The final record, lovely though it is, simply cannot be played by four people, however many instruments they each play, and when touring the album, they brought in an 18-piece ensemble to round it out.
“You have an idea of a song you can create with four people in a room, but it’s not multi-dimensional when you come to record it,” says Reeve, “but sometimes production can be very restrictive, because the last thing we want to do is play to anything prerecorded, because then you’re a slave to a machine. So we tried playing with electronics in a more improvisational way, and brought in further members to bump up the line-up, and a sound-designer that gave it those dusty foundations. And then sampling. That took the sound to another level.”
Though this is clearly a band that likes to take its time creating new sounds, performance is today an essential part of building a band’s profile – and Hejira has taken to it in its own unique way, by launching the Traum Tour – an extension of a regular night in London’s hipster vortex, Dalston.
“There’s a lot of music going on in London. You have to cultivate a space, a scene, so people know where you are,” says Reeve. To this end, the Traum Tour (traum is German for “dream”) brings together bands and musicians that the band loves, eventually pulling together the “Traumtape”, a mix of music by Hejira and their friends. Starting a label is not, apparently, out of the question.
The next album won’t take so long, says Reeve, “but it may well be different, whether we want to change, move, be in the moment, so we’re putting sessions in and writing and just kind of talking. We realised what the first record was about through making it. And it’s always a lot of fun when you’re recording and writing at the same time – experimenting. It feels like you’re in a lab. We sometimes spent a day adjusting a microphone in front of a drum kit – we didn’t really know what we were doing the first time round.”
They certainly do now.
Gemma Champ is a freelance writer based in London.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 2
(Martial 30', McTominay 90 6')
Manchester City 0
Afghanistan squad
Gulbadin Naib (captain), Mohammad Shahzad (wicketkeeper), Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
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'Cheb%20Khaled'
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SPECS
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Read more about the coronavirus
New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
New Zealand 15
Tries: Laumape, J Barrett
Conversions: B Barrett
Penalties: B Barrett
British & Irish Lions 15
Penalties: Farrell (4), Daly
Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
- Ban fruit juice and sodas
- Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
- Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
- Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
- Don’t eat dessert every day
- Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
- Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
- Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
- Eat everything in moderation
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The%20Genius%20of%20Their%20Age
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20S%20Frederick%20Starr%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Oxford%20University%20Press%3Cbr%3EPages%3A%20290%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2024%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
The specs: 2018 Maserati Ghibli
Price, base / as tested: Dh269,000 / Dh369,000
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 355hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.9L / 100km
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Fixtures (all times UAE)
Saturday
Brescia v Atalanta (6pm)
Genoa v Torino (9pm)
Fiorentina v Lecce (11.45pm)
Sunday
Juventus v Sassuolo (3.30pm)
Inter Milan v SPAL (6pm)
Lazio v Udinese (6pm)
Parma v AC Milan (6pm)
Napoli v Bologna (9pm)
Verona v AS Roma (11.45pm)
Monday
Cagliari v Sampdoria (11.45pm)
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Saturday's schedule at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 race, 12:30pm
Formula 1 final practice, 2pm
Formula 1 qualifying, 5pm
Formula 2 race, 6:40pm
Performance: Sam Smith
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')
Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Power: 272hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 331Nm from 5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.7L/100km
On sale: now
Price: Dh149,000
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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