23 September 2026 – Abri & The Everlasting Release The Healing Through UAE Independent Label Ishtar Global

Abri & The Everlasting have released "The Healing", a record whose title sounds suspiciously ambitious until you hear how deliberately the band has built it around freedom, connection and the possibility of feeling better about things. The album arrives through Ishtar Global, the independent UAE label founded by DJ MoCity, and features Hamdan Al Abri on vocals alongside Ratish Chadha on drums, Steven Bedford on bass and Jerome Deligero on guitar. Additional horns, keyboards and percussion broaden the palette considerably.

Earlier single "Ocean" introduced the project, while songs including "Sister" and "Nothing Left to Prove" explore different ideas of liberation: one through rediscovered closeness, the other through refusing to squeeze yourself into somebody else's approved shape. Al Abri has said he hopes listeners receive the same sense of freedom, love and hope that the musicians experienced while creating the album, which is wonderfully earnest but fortunately backed by an actual band rather than an inspirational quote printed over a sunset.

"The Healing" also represents another interesting release from an independent Middle Eastern scene that deserves more international attention. There is increasingly little excuse for treating indie music as a geographical shorthand for Brooklyn, Brighton and whichever part of London currently has the expensive coffee. Interesting independent records are being made everywhere, and this one arrives from the Gulf with its own identity intact.