Amira Kheir - Mystic Dance

The music of Sudanese-Italian singer Amira Kheir, who has been tagged by BBC World News as the diva of the Sudanese desert, is rooted in ancient Nubian and Niolitic melodies, and is confidently married with experimental jazz and bursts of electric desert blues. She has previously released two albums, both to critical acclaim, View From Somewhere (2011) and Alsahraa (2014).Based in London, Amira has performed at some of the world's biggest festivals and stages, including Womad (UK), Festival Au Desert (Mali) and the London Jazz Festival. She has toured the Netherlands as part of the 'World Sessions' tour, and twice been commissioned to perform improvised scores for the Bird's Eye View Film Festival. She has featured in magazines including Songlines and fRoots, and appeared on the BBC's World News, World Service, Radio 3, Arabic and Persian services.Nominated as one of Six Amazing Jazz Artists from the Middle East and North Africa not to be missed by Mideast Tunes, she has also been selected as one of Thirteen African Artists that will mark the next Decade by Rede Angola. Amira's new album 'Mystic Dance' is a marriage of the traditional with the modern. Its elegant, organic form allows for ancient songs to sit side-by-side with more recent classics of the genre, not forgetting, of course, Amira's own compostions or, indeed, a version of Kurt Weill's 'Speak Low'. It is a celebration of ancient East African roots that have been catapulted into futuristic desert blues, and it compels us to expand our vision.