“Apocalypse Across the Sky,” recorded on location in Jajouka, a small village with no electricity or running water, is by turns hypnotic and unsettling. The 22-member ensemble sets polyphonous, droning melody lines, played on an oboelike instrument called the ghaita, over dense, circular drumming patterns. Derived from pre-Islamic rites celebrating the god Pan, the music is an evocation of sustained ecstasy. It is chaotic, cacophonous, sometimes at war with itself. And it is utterly intoxicating.
