“ ‘Ritual Of Light’ asserts itself with a rare sense of purpose, fusing disparate lineages into a language that feels less hybridized than wholly reconstituted. Descending Pharoahs, the trio of Ricardo Esway, Theo Khoury and Larold Will, operate with a clarity of intent that transforms their wide-ranging influences into something urgent and immediate, a body of work that imagines new mythologies through sound. “Sergeant Minor” opens with a coiled intensity, its central motif driven by Khoury’s bass as Esway threads sharp, modal lines overhead. Will’s drumming avoids mere propulsion, instead carving out a shifting terrain where rhythm becomes a living framework rather than a fixed grid. The piece carries an almost ceremonial force, its cyclical patterns suggesting invocation rather than repetition, as if summoning a narrative that resists linear telling. The brevity of “Location A” provides contrast without diminishing the album’s conceptual weight. It reads as a fragment, a glimpse into a larger system of ideas, where electronic textures flicker at the edges of perception. Will’s manipulation of circuitry introduces a subtle destabilization, while Khoury and Esway sketch outlines that feel deliberately incomplete, inviting the listener to imagine what lies beyond the frame. “Malek” expands into a more elaborate construction, one that foregrounds Khoury’s command of the oud and tzoura. The melodic vocabulary here draws from deeply rooted traditions, yet the execution avoids reverence in favor of transformation. Esway responds with guitar work that refracts these themes through a distinctly contemporary lens, creating a dialogue that is neither pastiche nor fusion but a genuine rearticulation. Will’s drumming, at once grounded and exploratory, anchors the piece while allowing its more expansive gestures to breathe. With “The Vital Plane,” the trio achieves a striking synthesis of density and openness. The composition pivots between tightly coiled passages and more spacious interludes, where sustained tones and subtle electronic interference create an almost topographical sense of depth. Esway’s phrasing becomes increasingly lyrical, while Khoury’s bass and stringed textures provide both foundation and counterpoint. The result is a piece that feels meticulously shaped without sacrificing the immediacy of its execution. “Samidin” introduces a darker tonal palette, its modal structures imbued with a sense of foreboding that never lapses into predictability. Khoury’s playing here is particularly compelling, his lines moving with a deliberate gravity that anchors the composition even as it shifts direction. Esway’s guitar work responds in kind, alternating between incisive statements and more atmospheric gestures, while Will’s drumming navigates the space between structure and abstraction with remarkable precision. The closing “The Word” functions as both culmination and departure. Its extended form allows the trio to explore a broader dynamic range, weaving together the album’s central ideas into a cohesive statement. The interplay between acoustic instrumentation and electronic intervention becomes especially pronounced, with Will’s contributions shaping the piece’s overall architecture as much as its surface detail. Esway and Khoury engage in a dialogue that feels both conversational and declarative, their lines intersecting and diverging in ways that suggest an ongoing process rather than a final resolution. Throughout ‘Ritual Of Light,’ Descending Pharaohs demonstrate an ability to balance compositional rigor with exploratory freedom. The inclusion of instruments such as oud and tzoura does not serve as ornamentation but as an integral component of the group’s vocabulary, expanding the possibilities of what a guitar-bass-drums configuration can achieve. At the same time, the use of electronics introduces an additional layer of complexity, one that enhances rather than obscures the trio’s core interactions. What ultimately distinguishes the album is its sense of vision. Rather than merely drawing from established traditions, Descending Pharaohs reimagine them as tools for constructing new sonic environments, spaces where history and speculation coexist. The music carries an undercurrent of defiance, a refusal to accept inherited boundaries, and in doing so it opens a path toward a form of expression that feels both deeply rooted and entirely forward-looking.” - James Broscheid

“Portland experimental rock trio Descending Pharaohs performs March 7 at Art House, fresh from recording the follow-up to their debut album, Ritual of Light. Heavy to their core and all-instrumental, Descending Pharaohs blend aspects of hard rock, post-rock and psychedelia with guitar, bass and drums. Blending Arabic and Anatolian influences, there’s a spiritual searching quality to their music. According to multi-instrumentalist Theo Khoury, those come from his small-town upbringing in Michigan. “I myself am Palestinian,” Khoury says. “My father was a refugee.” For as much British heavy metal he grew up listening to, he adds, there was Arabic and Eastern music, and “also a lot of Eastern Orthodox chant.” At the same time, there was “also appreciation for a lot of spiritual jazz,” he says. Khoury says the gamelan, an Indonesian instrument, manifests in either slendro or pelog scales, an Indonesian style of tuning based around either five or seven tones with no exact corollary in Western music. According to Khoury, Descending Pharaohs will perform new material at Art House, calling the Ritual of Light follow-up an Arab-futurism concept album. “There’s a lot more electronics melted into the sound, with traditional Eastern instruments implemented in there, too,” he says. Portland’s Abronia joins Descending Pharaohs in Eugene, supporting their brand-new release, Shapes Unravel. It is an equally eclectic (if more) traditionally structured album, with instruments like pedal steel meeting ’60s West Coast psychedelic hard rock. Eugene’s long-running cinematic instrumental surf-rock quartet Egotones opens the show.”

“Holding up the black-and-white collage that he made for the cover of Descending Pharaohs’ first full-length, multi-instrumentalist Theo Khoury says: “It’s labor of love. It doesn’t make any practical sense. There’s so much work that we put in, but we love the shit out of it.” He might as well be talking about his band. This passion project of Khoury and guitarist Ricardo Esway started early in the pandemic with the two getting to know one another over socially distanced beers. Once vaccinated, rehearsals commenced with the men mixing elements of psychedelia, post-punk, jazz and Middle Eastern sounds. “I think what we share is, we’re both diggers,” Khoury says. “We’ve had our heads in records and scenes for years and have an almost nerdy appreciation for foreign scales.” Descending Pharaohs has since been commanding stages around Portland, using their hypnotic music and a backdrop of trippy visuals to overwhelm the senses of anyone within their blast radius. Up next is their LP Ritual of Light, which will hopefully be available at the end of 2023, and a continued evolution of their collective sound. “Every time one of us has an idea,” Esway says, “it mutates almost instantly.” ”