The Handover‘s second album keeps the economy of their longform debut but pushes the music somewhere stranger. New Old Medicine arrives on June 5th, 2026 via Sublime Frequencies.
Aly Eissa (oud), Ayman Asfour (violin) and Jonas Cambien (vintage organ and synth) have spent two years on the road since their 2024 debut, during which this new piece took shape. Late last year, during a stop in Berlin, Rabih Beaini recorded it at Morphine Raum. Like its predecessor, New Old Medicine is one continuous composition, written by Eissa and arranged by all three.
The roots are Egyptian — the maqamat and rhythms of the Nile Delta — but what grows from that soil sounds like little else coming out of the country. The Arabic title, منه فيه, is a colloquialism for something that originates from within a thing itself, self-sufficient and complete. That’s how the music was built: Eissa laid the foundations, and the rest came from conversation and improvisation between three players who perform facing each other in a half-circle.
Tucker Wiedenkeller’s liner notes map the journey: “It originates in the psychic depths with a pensive melody. Gradually solidifying, the organ’s first solo ushers the piece into a swaying, reverent dance… the musicians ride untethered through the midnight. This frenzy is followed by a calm repose on placid water. But this calm is merely a deep inhale before the final charged ascent into cosmic rapture.”
New Old Medicine comes as a limited vinyl pressing with a two-page insert carrying Wiedenkeller’s notes.
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