‘El Fetra’ is the first thing to surface from ‘Syrr’, blending heritage-rooted composition with something considerably less settled.
After an eight-year hiatus since Maryam Saleh’s last full-length project, she unveils her first secret ‘El Fetra’ (translated as “The Instinct”) from her upcoming album ‘Syrr’, scheduled for release next year. The track features a sophisticated blend of heritage-rooted composition and avant-garde electronic production.
Unlike her protest songs, directed outward toward society, ‘El Fetra’ feels like an internal monologue, blending raw lyrical expression with subtle theatricality. Saleh crafts an immersive sonic autobiography rooted in embodiment in a very deep vocal performance. Saleh’s vocals mimic an instrumental rhythm themselves, weaving in and out of Zizi Ibrahim’s sweltering cello lines. There is a call-and-response quality between her phrases and the instrumental hooks, echoing the taqtuqa song form she references.
The production operates as a collaborative tour-de-force between Maryam Saleh, experimental composer Maurice Louca, and psychidelic shaabi producer El Waili, with Palestinian electroacoustic oud player Kamilya Jubran contributing additional production influence across the broader project. Their combined approach bridges the organic timbres of traditional acoustic instrumentation with the colder, textural edges of contemporary electronic music. Louca’s keys, Jubran’s oud and backing vocals, Ibrahim’s expressive cello, and El Waili’s grainy electronic textures, all together create a style that reimagines the 20th-century neo-taqtuqa form without relying on a traditional takht ensemble, just giving it that hint of nostalgia. The track was mastered by acclaimed engineer Heba Kadry, known for her work with experimental artists such as Björk and Slowdive.
