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Verity Sharp shares a mixtape from intercontinental experimental noise duo Pollution Opera, the new project dreamt (or nightmared) up by Nadah el Shazly and Elvin Brandhi. Nadah is a singer, composer, and producer from Cairo who combines electronic music with contemporary classical and popular historical Egyptian music. Elvin is an artist, vocalist, and avant-garde musician from Bridgend, Wales, a seasoned improviser both as a solo artist and as half of father-daughter duo Yeah You.

Together, Nadah and Elvin aim for Pollution Opera to be an ‘uncompromising futurist depiction of our disfigured, dystopian, and dying reality’, weaving breathless shouts, screams, and screeches, alongside samples, field recordings and electroacoustic fragments. The project was conceived in 2020, during a tandem motorbike ride through Nadah’s hometown of Cairo, the second-loudest city in the world, where they found the extreme noise pollution cathartic, inspiring and existential. They’ve crafted an exclusive mixtape for Late Junction that’s bound to put hairs on your chest.

Produced by Kit Callin
A Reduced Listening production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3