Sultan & Shepard — Melodic House & Progressive DJSultan & Shepard
Sultan & Shepard are Canadian DJs Ossama Al Sarraf, known as Sultan, and Ned Shepard, a Montreal duo whose sound sits between melodic house, progressive house and deep house. They met as McGill University students in 2002 after Shepard gave Sultan a demo CD. Sultan had already signed to Chug Records in 2001, and together they built their catalogue through Montreal's house scene before establishing an independent label path. Their musical frame draws on shared house and electronic influences: Shepard has cited Chicane, Brian Eno, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, Faithless and Sasha & John Digweed, while Sultan adds Daft Punk and Deep Dish.
In 2008 they founded Harem Records, and their releases have also appeared through This Never Happened and Armada Music. That combination of house-scene roots and sustained label involvement has kept their DJ work closely tied to curation as well as performance. Their remix of Bruno Mars's Locked Out of Heaven received a Grammy nomination for Best Remixed Recording in 2013. In 2018, Almost Home featuring Nadia Ali and IRO received a Juno Award nomination for Dance Recording of the Year.
Sultan also starred in the 2004 documentary Being Osama, concerning his Christian Palestinian roots. The duo's profile is centered on patient, melodic house programming shaped by a longstanding Montreal partnership.