Natacha Atlas

Natacha Atlas - Myriad Road

Tuesday 9th February 2016 - Wednesday 10th February 2016

Born in Brussels of Anglo-Egyptian parentage, singer and world music star, Natacha Atlas’s multi-cultural background and experiences have helped shape her trademark sound which seamlessly bridges musical and culture divides. Exploding onto the scene in the early 1990s, Atlas rapidly gained widespread recognition for her successful pioneering meld of Western and Eastern music, specifically her use of cutting-edge electronic beats with Arabic melodies and instrumentation.

After several releases and a string of albums fronting the seminal Transglobal Underground, she debuted with Diaspora (1994). Atlas then followed with Gedida (Beggar’s Banquet) which won the Victoire Award; the rest, as they say, is history and she has subsequently worked with the likes of Peter Gabriel, Sinead O”Connor and Jean-Michel Jarre. Her last two albums, the critically-acclaimed Ana Hina (2007) and Mounqaliba (2010), have represented a radical evolution of Atlas’s artistic horizons.

On both, Atlas combines her hallmark synthesis of Western and Middle Eastern musical traditions and culture with classical and jazz influences and sounds. She appears here playing material from her excellent recent album, Myriad Road, a breathtakingly seamless mixture of contemporary jazz and Arabic vocals that she created with star French trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, She is supported by a superb band featuring pianist Alcyona Mick, bassist Andy Hamill and the brilliant Asaf Sirkis on drums, while Hayden Powell stands in for Maalouf.


Exploding onto the scene in the early 1990s, Atlas rapidly gained widespread recognition for her successful pioneering meld of Western and Eastern musics, specifically, her use of cutting-edge electronic beats with Arabic melodies and instrumentation. After several releases with Nation Records and a string of albums fronting the seminal Transglobal Underground, she debuted with Diaspora (1994). Atlas then followed with Gedida (Beggar’s Banquet) which won the Victoire Award; the rest, as they say, is history.

Her last 2 albums, the critically-acclaimed Ana Hina (2007) and Mounqaliba (2010), have represented a radical evolution of Atlas’s artistic horizons. On both, Atlas combines her hallmark synthesis of Western and Middle Eastern musical traditions and culture with classical and jazz influences and sounds. Indeed, on Mounqaliba, she pushed the boundaries further, producing an album lavishly orchestrated by her long-time collaborator Samy Bishai.

In addition to her own projects, Atlas has worked extensively with an eclectic group of distinguished artists across a wide variety of musical genres including: pop (Peter Gabriel, Sinead O’Connor, Indigo Girls, and Jean-Michel Jarre); classical (Nigel Kennedy, Jocelyn Pook); jazz (Nigel Kennedy); film scores (Danny Elfman, Clint Mansell, David Arnold, Harry Gregson-Williams, Rachel Portman); and world music (Nitin Sawhney, Transglobal Underground, Talvin Singh).

read more: http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/performances/view/3129-natacha-atlas-myriad-road?utm_source=Emailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=29DEC2015