“Transcendent beauty in an unholy racket” The Guardian

Hypnotic polyrhythms play a central role on Fera, creating the pulse for a sound that’s rich in acoustic tonality and lively energy. Louca uses custom-made, microtonal guitars to explore nuanced phrasings, and his languid interplay with violin, synthesizer, and other instruments lead to moments of vivid beauty. This wild and adventurous album that Egyptian artist Maurice Louca wrote over a four-year period takes its title from the Latin root for the word feral, and has its origins in a solo set that Louca first developed in 2019; the compositions eventually took their final shape when he recorded them in a Cairo studio in 2024 with a group of longtime collaborators and guests. 

The violinist Ayman Asfour, percussionist and drummer Khaled Yassine, double bassist Rosa Brunello and co-producer Adham Zidan all play critical roles on the album, and they’re joined on two tracks by multi-instrumentalist Nancy Mounir (who plays violin and theremin on “El Taalab”) and oud virtuoso Hazem Shaheen (on “Sahar”). Fera is some of the most composed and thoughtfully-crafted music Louca has ever made, but of course it’s guided by the dynamic experimentation and collaborative spark that have become central to his work.  

Fera’s artwork was created by another long-time collaborator, visual artist Maha Maamoun, using the Decalcomania ink transfer technique, to create dream-like natural forms that emerge through both deliberate manipulation and chance. Residue elements photographed from 6,000-year-old rock art paintings found at the Cave of Swimmers in Gilf Kebir (an area on the Egypt-Libya border) can be seen in the Fera “painting”, which was digitally manipulated for color and other effects along with original typography and graphic design in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist and designer Hussein Nassereddine. 

Composed & arranged by Maurice Louca

Produced by Maurice Louca & Adham Zidan

Recorded by Adham Zidan at CairoGroove Studio, Feb 2024

Mixed by Adham Zidan

Mastered by: Harris Newman at GREY MARKET MASTERING

Creative Producer: May Mostafa at Simsara Music 

Maurice Louca (guitars, synths)

Khaled Yassine (drums, percussions)

Ayman Asfour (violin)

Rosa Brunello (double bass)

Hazem Shaheen (oud, track 6)

Nancy Mounir (violin, theremin, track 3)

SIDE A

1. Polaris
2. Ghab
3. El Taalab
4. Tanamor
5. Lawendi

SIDE B

1. Sahar
2. Trembler II
3. Barboun
4. Barĩy (Fera)

ⓟ & ⓒ 2025 Maurice Louca under exclusive license to Simsara Records

Published by Simsara Music 

All rights reserved SIMSARA004 & SIMSARA004LP

Intentionally small in scale with a keen curatorial ear for adventurous new sounds, Simsara Records is an imprint of Simsara Music, an artist management and creative production operation known for the intimate infrastructure behind some of the most innovative Arabic music today.

As a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Maurice Louca brings uncanny intuition and intrepid collaborative energy to a wide range of solo endeavors and group projects. His visionary work encompasses psychedelic shaabi music, cosmic jazz, and free-form improvisation, pushing the boundaries of artistic possibility. 

Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, Louca plays in The Dwarfs of East Agouza with avant-punk icon Alan Bishop and experimental composer Sam Shalabi. He formed the trio Lekhfa—known for their 2017 album of the same name—with the celebrated singer/actor Maryam Saleh and iconoclast composer/buzuq player Tamer Abu Ghazaleh. Louca’s 10-member ensemble, Elephantine, features jazz musicians from Italy, Sweden, and Germany. Of course, he is also known for several acclaimed solo albums, including 2014's Benhayyi Al-Baghbaghan (Salute the Parrot), 2019's Elephantine, and 2021's Saet El Hazz (The Luck Hour). His latest effort, Fera, is scheduled for release in 2025 on Simsara Records.

Louca first began playing music when he got a guitar for his birthday when he was 12 years old. Eager to seek out cutting-edge sounds, he grew up on Western rock ’n’ roll and local shaabi music. As Louca’s skills developed, so did the way he wrote music. “At some point I started playing the guitar like it’s not a guitar anymore, through tons of pedals and effects,” he recalls. “Then I made the transition to electronic music—not really knowing that it’s electronic music.” 

In 2004, Louca founded the electronic rock band Bikya with his friend Mahmoud Waly and they were soon joined by Mahmoud Refaat (founder of Cairo record label 100Copies). The band played regularly in the city until the early 2010s, and meanwhile Louca honed his production skills to create his solo debut, 2011’s Garraya—a home-recorded electronic album whose intense soundscapes and hypnotic shaabi rhythms hinted at ideas that he would explore to even more sophisticated effect on Benhayyi Al-Baghbaghan (Salute the Parrot) and Lekhfa. Salute the Parrot is anchored by maqam keyboard riffs and driving machine rhythms, drawing on folk traditions to create something bold and new. As is the case on all of his projects, it’s a process that came together organically as Louca followed his creative instincts. “I keep stumbling upon things,” he says. “It’s rare that I go to something with intent.”

Cairo’s music scene felt cut off from the rest of the world when Louca was first starting out, but Egypt saw a surge of creative activity in the years following the 2011 revolution. In addition to the Dwarfs and Lekhfa, he joined the bands Alif and Karkhana in the mid 2010s. After Salute the Parrot came out, he put away his machines and picked up the guitar again to write the material that would eventually form his 2019 album, Elephantine. A heady, richly-arranged work of avant-garde jazz, Elephantine takes inspiration from Sun Ra, Shalabi’s Land of Kush orchestra, and African and Yemeni folk. The album’s release marked an ambitious new phase for Louca as he formed a large ensemble featuring longtime collaborators like Nadah El Shazly along with an international consortium of horn, woodwind, percussion, and vibraphone players. 

The album was such a success that Elephantine turned into a touring unit—and they later returned to the studio for the boozy, loose-limbed Moonshine from 2023. Naturally, his other solo projects go in uniquely daring directions. For 2021’s Saet El Hazz (The Luck Hour), he teamed with Lebanon’s “A” Trio to create gorgeous works of longform improvisation. The album came about as part of a commission from the Brussels-based arts organization Mophradat, and it features a custom-built guitar and Gamelan that Louca uses to play microtonal melodies with quarter-tone tunings. Fera, his wild and adventurous forthcoming album, shows him continuing to expand on his singular creative vision.