The Handover
In The Handover, Aly Eissa, Ayman Asfour, and Jonas Cambien explore the common and uncommon senses of Egypt's ritual music. It is clear that Aly Eissa's original composition is deeply rooted in Egyptian and Arabic traditions. At the same time, this band is one of the most progressive coming out of Egypt today. This is in big part thanks to Eissa, who has proven time and again to be not only an extremely skillful composer, but also a real visionary, combining tradition with modern experimentation.
A performance by The Handover is typically one stretch without a break: a long build-up that lasts for the duration of the concert. Towards the end of the performance, all the tension is released in an exuberant, joyful climax, when wild improvisations are driven forward on top of exciting dance-rhythms from rural Egypt. The Handover elegantly combines the delicacy of classical Arabic music, the raw expressiveness of Egypt's countryside music, and the spontaneity of free improvisation, carefully obliterating the artificial separation between acoustic and electronic instruments. Despite the remarkable absence of any percussion or drums, The Handover is an extremely groovy band, with an ability to slow down and accelerate the tempo in almost telepathic synchronization at exactly the right moments.
Alongside the tight ensemble playing, there is plenty of room for individual expression as the oud, synthesizer, and violin take turns playing solos on top of repetitive riffs. Throughout the album, native Alexandrian Ayman Asfour plays the violin with breathtaking beauty, while not being afraid to make the violin buzz, squeak, and rattle at times. Belgian/Norwegian keyboardist Jonas Cambien makes the synthesizer a melodic instrument in its own right, at times evoking almost classical Maqam, while at other moments it seems like he comes straight out of an Egyptian wedding. The oud forms the backbone of the composition's structure, as Aly Eissa's solos guide the listener from minimalist, meditative drones to a compelling climax and back to earth.
There is much more to The Handover's sound than the obvious references to Arabic and Egyptian music. The opening drone section of the album is pushed towards abstraction and even noise, and the vintage Farfisa organ gives the music a touch of 70s psychedelic rock. The repetitive riffs can be reminiscent of Embryo's experiments combining krautrock with influences from the Middle East, but the use of repetition to induce trance dates back to Egyptian music, and is present in many rituals like Sufi and moulid celebrations. The composed melodies on this album wouldn't be possible without Eissa's deep love for this music. And what The Handover does with this composed material couldn't be possible without three strong individual voices, their love to play music together, and their dedication to pushing the traditions forward.
Aly Eissa
Aly Eissa (b. 1993) is a self-taught oud player, composer, and improviser based in Cairo, Egypt. He was mentored by legendary composer Abdo Dagher and oud virtuoso Hazem Shaheen. Eissa’s style is deeply rooted in the Egyptian classical and folk traditions and influenced by various styles. Since 2012, Eissa has been regularly performing his compositions solo and with ensembles for live audiences, creating versatile and twisted meditative atmospheres throughout the musical experience.
Mohamed Sabry
Mohamed Sabry is a Cairo-based sound engineer and cultural manager with a deep passion for music and live performance. Over the past decade, he has collaborated with leading cultural venues and festivals, including the El Gouna Film Festival, Baheya Foundation, and ROOM Art Space & Café, where he engineered more than 288 live concerts. His work extends from live sound and recording to managing cultural spaces that bring artists and audiences together.
In April 2023, Mohamed recorded Gouda Bar, the debut album of Egyptian oud player Aly Eissa, released by the French label Akuphone. This project reflects his commitment to supporting original music and fostering cross-cultural dialogue through sound. Trained as an L-Acoustics Certified System Integrator, Mohamed combines technical precision with an artistic sensibility, making him a trusted partner for musicians, festivals, and cultural initiatives across Egypt and beyond.
Jonas Cambien
Jonas Cambien (b.1985) is a Belgian/Norwegian pianist, composer, and improviser active in jazz, improvised, and contemporary music. With a solid background in classical music, but as much a child of Oslo's freejazz and improvised music scene, his style passes seamlessly from Cecil Taylor to Ligeti, creating his own language on the way.
Most noted for leading Jonas Cambien Trio, featuring André Roligheten on reeds, and Andreas Wildhagen on drums, and the quartet Maca Conu, featuring Norwegian bass player Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Danish saxophone player Signe Emmeluth, and drummer Andreas Wildhagen, Cambien has performed on major stages and jazz festivals in Norway and abroad, and has released several albums on the Portuguese label Clean Feed: A Zoology of the Future (2016), We Must Mustn’t We (2018), Nature Hath Painted the Body (2021) and Maca Conu (2024), all to critical acclaim. The American jazz critic John Sharpe picked A Zoology of the Future as one of the 10 best jazz albums of 2016, and said about We Must Mustn’t We: “They sound like no one else.”
Cambien is part of The Handover together with Aly Eissa and Ayman Asfour, a trio that combines deep Arabic folk roots and ritual music of rural Egypt with modern improvisation, krautrock influences, and psychedelic shaabi, and has released a critically acclaimed album on Sublime Frequencies. In addition, Cambien performs with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & Marianna Sangita Røe. He is a founding member of Aksiom, an Oslo-based ensemble for contemporary music, and has guested with other ensembles for contemporary music, such as Assamissimasa, ensemble neoN, and Lemur. He has also performed with some of the major figures in the Scandinavian and global improvised music and freejazz scenes such as Paal Nilssen-Love, Xavier Charles, Dave Rempis, Per Zanussi, and Andreas Røysum.
Ayman Asfour
Ayman Asfour is a violinist and composer born in Alexandria in 1979. He graduated from the Faculty of Specific Education at Alexandria University, specializing in the violin. He then worked as a violin teacher at the same university for four years before joining the music faculty at Helwan University for a postgraduate degree in 2001. He has collaborated with many musicians, composers, and singers in Egypt, the Arab world, and from around the world, such as Hazem Shaheen, Ali Eissa, Ghalia ben Ali, Maurice Louca, Natiq Aziz, Huda Asfour, and Roman Bunka. In 2012, he founded the Oufuqy Music Festival, which was held for six years in Alexandria.
