Débruit & Alsarah - "Jibal Alnuba". Strange that this music is a conversation that happened between Paris and Brooklyn. Merely Paris, merely Brooklyn. I feel a disappointment when I learn that although Alsarah is singing in the language she learned growing up, in Sudan, she now lives in New York. I feel a disappointment when I read that Débruit deejays in France, not Tunisia. This isn't a craving for "authenticity": that this music would only be "real" if it came from outside the west. It's the excitement of imagination. Hearing this music for the first time, considering its sound and feeling, you imagine where it came from - and the spinning, glittering possibilities are themselves a thrill. Is this the soundtrack of Khartoum's underground electronic scene? Of a bedroom in Qatar? Of a club in Algiers? If Aljawal is from somewhere where all the influences are unfamiliar, where the sights and sounds are different, then it signals a new world to be discovered.

But instead of signalling an outside world, a place we can go to, where "Jibal Alnuba" is in the air and the water, this is the sound of an interior landscape. The work of Xavier Thomas and Alsarah speaks to complicated, nimble hearts; to light appetites and relentless courage; to subtlety and love. It's dance music that seems absent of all nostalgia; synthetic folk-song that gestures out, out, out, away from old cycles. It's neat and chopped; it's well-crafted and rare; it's like a dragonfly, it knows exactly where it's going, and why, and how.

[buy / on tour]

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Americans of the east, come see me on tour! I'm hitting the road to promote my first novel, Us Conductors. At almsot every stop, in addition to a reading and signing, I'll be joined by a guest theremin-player from the area. Say hi, hear some wordy words, learn about the strangest music instrument under the sun. I hope you'll come (and please tell yr friends):

• Saturday, June 21, 2014 • Boston, MA - Porter Square Books with thereminist Jon Bernhardt
• Monday, June 23, 2014 • Brooklyn, NY - Greenlight Book Store with thereminist Rob Schwimmer
• Tuesday, June 24, 2014 • Manhattan, NY - McNally Jackson bookstore KGB Bar, an event hosted by the extraordinary music/books blog Largehearted Boy
• Wednesday, June 25, 2014 • Philadelphia, PA - Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art with thereminist Mano Divina and a screening of the theremin documentary 21st Century Classical Music
• Thursday, June 26, 2014 • Baltimore, MD - Atomic Books with thereminist Robby Neubauer and Fulton Lights [FB]
• Friday, June 27, 2014 • Washington, DC - Kramerbooks with thereminist Arthur Harrison
• Sunday, June 29, 2014 • Durham, NC - Letters Bookshop with thereminist Dave Yarwood
• Wednesday, July 2, 2014 • Asheville, NC - The Moog Factory with Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel
• Thursday, July 3, 2014 • Atlanta, GA - Highland Inn Ballroom with A Capella Books and Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel