A Franco-Algerian trumpeter living in Switzerland, Shems Bendali develops a narrative and sensitive music, nourished by jazz and Algerian musical traditions. At the head of his quintet, he fashions a personal language in which memory and imagination merge and resonate with each other.

His new album unfolds in a science-fiction universe set between the Maghreb and the Middle East and inspired by the aesthetics of futuristic comics. It takes the listener on a journey listening to the murmur of desert sand and enjoying a breeze from the heights of skyscrapers. More than a story, it's a lore The result is an original fictional setting that serves as a backdrop for evocative compositions, some intimate, some contemplative.

The album welcomes the singer Climène Zarkan and the oud player Amine Mraihi on a track with Arabo-Andalusian colours, who come together in a celestial, singular and powerful creation, rooted in a thousand-year-old tradition.

Through his music, Shems Bendali explores a plural identity, between the West where he lives and the Maghreb to which he belongs. Like Amin Maalouf before him, he refuses to choose between his allegiances: he turns them into a space for creation, questioning and beauty.

He is also a member of the the BIG TUSK with whom he performs regularly in Switzerland and Europe.