Shoshan

Ready for something new and exciting? How about qawwali (Sufi devotional song), Rajasthani folk singing, Indian classical music, flamenco and Israeli strings, all mixed up together? Shye Ben-Tzur is the ‘Hebrew Sufi’ and the first-ever Israeli qawwal. It could have gone so wrong. US-born Ben-Tzur began his musical career with hard rock band Sword of Damocles. At the age of 19, he attended a concert in Jerusalem by bansuri (bamboo flute) master Hariprasad Chaurasia and tabla master Zakir Hussain that changed his life. Next stop: Ajmer, Rajasthan. What could have been a brief spot of spiritual tourism was in fact a decade-long immersion in the town's Sufi Muslim traditions.

He spent time learning dhrupad – Hindustani devotional song – from Zia Fariduddin Dagar, met and learnt from local qawwali singers, and finally began writing his own qawwalis in the Hebrew language. Shoshan follows his self-produced debut Heeyam, and is an accessible, uplifting and, yes, catchy album in the best traditions of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The traditional sounds of India are represented by qawwali, Rajasthani folk singing and the classical Indian vocals of Shubha Mudgal as well as the sarod (lute), sarangi (bowed lute) and tabla, bhapang and dholak drums. The inspired touch lies in adding the flamenco guitar of Fernando Perez, the violins of Yael Barolsky and Daniel Cohen and cello of Maya Bellsitzman. The mix works. Tradition is re-presented rather than diluted. If you need a soundtrack for your summer, this could be it.