A wave of blistering noise washes over a barrage of unrelenting percussion. These are the chaotic free jazz sounds of Saint Abdullah – Tehran-born brothers Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh – and Jason Nazary – Brooklyn-based drummer and composer. This noisy and evolving collaboration began when Nazary and the Mehrabani-Yeganeh brothers realised that they all lived in the same neighbourhood of Brooklyn and admired each other’s music. Their first release together Evicted In The Morning (2023) had tender, glitchy, ambient currents coursing through it. It focussed around synthesised, reverie-inducing melodies and sparse pulmonary drum tracks, streaming through the compositions’ veins. Their follow-up, Looking Through Us (2023) took a turn towards montaged samples, muddy modular synthesis, and free jazz disarray, with a grimy quality to its sampling that recalls the hip hop tradition of the East Coast of the US while also summoning the traditional folk music sounds of the North Coast of Iran.

Saint Abdullah & Jason Nazary bring their distorted, improvised strain of jazz electronics to Cafe Oto, performing a special live set based around Looking Through Us’ eviscerating drums, veering tempos, and gnarled feedback.