Formed in the Bay Area by multi-instrumentalist Jef Stott (ex-Stellamara), acid jazz musician Michael Emenau, and Kazakhstan-born singer/songwriter Irina Mikhailova, Lumin emerged in the late '90s with their tribal trip-hop fusion project, which incorporated rhythms from Middle Eastern, medieval European, classical, and electronic ambient music. They issued a trio of albums in the span of a decade before pursuing their own solo endeavors. Originally founded by Stott and Emenau, Lumin released their debut album, Datura (City of Tribes Records), in 1998. For their brooding follow-up, 2002's Hadra (World Class Records), they recruited Mikhailova for vocal duties and choral arrangements, incorporating Bulgarian choir, Sufi trance, drum'n'bass, and downtempo elements alongside Turkish and Arabic instruments such as the tambur, tablas, bendir, darbuka, riqq, and zills. The trio issued Ketri, their livelier final LP, in 2007 on Japanese label Dakini Records. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Drago Bonacich