With twelve months of writing and collaborations with ten different artists, Akram Soliman unleashed his debut EP The Phoenix on the 21st of December 2023. Mixing his deep rocking roots with his diverse influences, Akram takes us on a journey into his creative mind as he covers 4 of the most successful songs of all time on The Phoenix. Let’s dig deeper into it.
Akram Soliman boldly opened The Phoenix with a surprising cover of House of the Rising Sun, giving the original song’s escalating dark sound an upbeat and fun twist. I loved their arrangement and layering, where producer Omar Badawy’s trumpets engage in a smooth conversation with Nader El Gazairly’s groovy guitars as both pushed the song’s dynamics and kept the energy high. Soldier of Fortune comes next bearing the song’s original mood and flow while adding subtle bluesy guitar licks by Nader El Gazairly and extended keyboard melodies by Ibrahem “Devom” Hassan, creating an atmospheric layer that adds a lot to its melancholic sound. Akram’s extra vocal harmonies were totally on point, and produced a deeper emotional layer that helped deliver the needed heartfelt touching sound. With another big twist, Boulevard of Broken Dreams comes next as Akram tuned its dynamics a little bit while steering its sound towards an oriental one with significant oud lines by Hajar Ahmed. Guitarist Ziad Hamoury, bassist Omar Badawy, and drummer Mohammad Elattar kept the song’s rocking sound uncompromised with their distorted riffs, wild solos, groovy basslines, and pounding drums, creating a unique mix that surprisingly worked. Shape of My Heart ends the EP with a warm soothing sound, keeping its original mood and melody while gaining more ambient sound by Akram’s echoing vocal harmonies and deeper layers and textures from Omar Badawy’s production, adding their unique creative character to the song’s mix making it their own.
The Phoenix is a solid debut by Akram Soliman that shows his diverse influences and willingness to experiment with different sounds and approaches, it made me more excited to see where he’ll go next with his original stuff that I believe would sound even better. Looking forward to more from Akram, keep on rocking man. Cheers!
