Suuns & Jerusalem In My Heart - Suuns & Jerusalem In My Heart (2015)

You might remember Montreal psych rockers Suuns from the 32-minute minimalist music video they put out last summer, or from their trippy 2013 album, Images Du Futur. You might not remember Montreal experimental musicmaker Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, who releases music as Jerusalem In My Heart, but you will now. That’s because the two have recorded a gargantuan, continent-fusing album together called, appropriately, Suuns And Jerusalem In My Heart. These seven tracks are startling on their own, but compiled, they become an alluring collection that blend the former’s knack for cooking up skittering beats and the latter’s rich history of evoking Eastern musical hallmarks in inventive ways.

This duality is best personified on “Gazelles In Flight,” a rhythmic circus that finds deep, ’80s noir-crime synth sounds squaring off against flittering organic notes in the opposite channel. It’s a neat trick, recalling both desert skies and cosmopolitan glow in what’s really just masterful repetition. Opener “2amoutu I7tirakan” plays a similar game, steadily rising to a grooving, Kraut-inspired stomp over six arresting minutes of off-kilter, mechanical swirls. But Suuns And Jerusalem In My Heart should not be thought of as an East-meets-West novelty project. In fact, the tones created by the four Suuns guys are indistinguishable from those created by Moumneh; that’s the result of intense, close collaboration between the five musicians who recorded this record in late 2012 in their home city. The tapes sat around for nearly two years before the five linked up again for overdubs and refinements, including overall production work from Moumneh and some mixing duties done by Suuns’ Max Henry. The album’s immediate, lightning-bolt pleasure comes from its unique matchup of talent. Listen to the whole thing below.