Glsah Sanaanea with Shiran

Albums of music from Yemen emerge rarely in the West; albums of Yemeni women singers are rarer still and we have had to wait decades for anything of this quality. SHIRAN's family were among the 50,000 Yemeni Jews airlifted to Israel in Operation Flying Carpet during 1948; many have kept their culture alive in their new home, passing songs and stories down the generations. Yemen's place at the crossroads between Africa and Arabia gives the country's music a distinctive energy that singers like Ofra Haza and the female sibling trio A-WA harnessed to good effect with club remixes.

SHIRAN did this on her debut but what makes her new release so exciting is that she has now stripped traditional songs back to their original instrumentation and the un-plugged sound is even more dynamic. Special mention should be made of Shauli Itzhak's oud playing and the sinewy vitality of this – along with qanun, kawala (flute), strings and percussion – perfectly complements SHIRAN's strongly expressive voice. You may never get to experience the intense thrill of a khat-fuelled hafla (party) in Sana’a or Tel-Aviv, but that's OK, with SHIRAN you can get some of the way there with your headphones!