Yazz Ahmed's fourth studio album, A Paradise in The Hold, out now is inspired by the folk music of Bahrain, the island of two seas, in which the work songs of pearl divers and their songs of longing and loneliness contrast with the celebratory music of traditional female drum groups who perform at weddings and festivals. ‘The original 90-minute suite, Alhaan Al Siduri, which forms the basis of this album, was composed in 2015. The creative process began with a research trip to Bahrain in 2014, during which I attended a private concert by the Pearl Divers from my hometown of Muharraq and scoured local bookshops for wedding song lyrics and poems. I also had the rare pleasure of hearing my grandfather sing me songs from his own wedding. From these two elements of inspiration, the words I found and the music I heard, treated with my new interest in sound design, individual compositions and the shape of the suite began to emerge.(...) The lyrics they sing include fragments of traditional Bahraini songs and thoughts from my own daydreams, reflections on the distant home of my childhood.’

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