Warning: the words "musical journey" are coming up in a minute. Before you turn away in disgust muttering "Bleeding Simon Cowell", hold on. For once, use of said words may be legitimate.

But first let me make some introductions. Our guests today are a former financier turned flamenco dancer born in Casablanca and raised in Paris, and a former Killing Joke bass player – from slightly less glamorous Lancashire– turned highly regarded music producer.

Karen Ruimy and Youth (or Martin Glover as was) are coming to Edinburgh with ZIK'R, a show that takes in Flamenco dancing, Indian musicians, a dash of electronica and mixes them all together into one sweaty, delirious mash-up.

"It started in India," explains Ruimy when asked to outline the origins of the show. "Youth and I were invited to Jodphur to the first Sufi Music Festival to create some songs and perform them there in this amazing festival in an ancient fort. An amazing setting, very spiritual and very mystical.

"I'm a flamenco dancer and flamenco has been created by the gypsies and the gypsies come exactly from that place in the world, the former Rajasthan. So I thought it was great to create a concept of the show of mixing Sufi songs and flamenco because they have the same roots and they merge really well in the same show."

"The concept," Youth elaborates (and here come those words), "was basically the musical journey of flamenco and northern Indian Sufi music. I have this studio in Granada. I started to explore the journey of flamenco and the journey of the gypsies and having spent a lot of time in India it became apparent that northern India was one of the sources of that. A lot of the gypsies settled in Andalucia and that's where flamenco was forged."

And so ZIK'R fuses two musical forms that both have Roma blood with contemporary dance beats. And then dances. Or Ruimy does anyway.

"Wanting to reflect that journey in a show was Karen's idea," Youth adds." So we started writing and experimenting and researching and developing it over the last couple of years into the show which it has become.

"It's a great honour and privilege to be able to perform it and tap into those cultures. I'm certainly not qualified. I'm not Spanish. I'm not Indian. But I'm a big fan of those musics. As an artist I'm allowed to explore that if it resonates with me, so that's what we are doing with this show."

The duo first met in Peter Gabriel's Real World studio when Ruimy was looking for a producer for an album she was working on. "We discovered we had a lot of passion in common and we decided to work together" Ruimy says. "He's a very interesting character. He kind of let it happen. That's his main philosophy. I remember one day he put the music on a loop, left the studio for 15 minutes saying 'if you feel like adding some lyrics or sound ...' And I did. He believes in the magic of the moment a lot. And then when he feels you're too shy with yourself he pushes you."

It's unlikely that Ruimy needs much pushing, you'd imagine. She grew up an immigrant in France who carved out a career in banking and finance and then through that over to pursue her passion. "When I was in finance I really felt I came to a corner where I didn't feel excitement anymore and I didn't enjoy making money as a banker. So I was not in the right place. And at the same time I felt a very strong spiritual call. I felt a big need to stop being an employee and I understood that my life was on stage. It took me a few years to be out of the normal society and a normal job and to really realise I was an artist."

Youth's artistic birth came in the post-punk era. The mix-and-match culture of that time, he reckons, had a huge impact on him. "Being experimental has always been a big part of music for me," he explains. "It goes back to me being a post-punk rocker, I suppose, and not wanting to just doing things that you've done before."

You can find him in that bit of the Venn diagram where rock and dance overlap, having worked with the Orb and claiming a 1990 hit as a member of techno duo Blue Pearl. (Remember Naked in the Rain?)

"I've definitely been part of the more mash-up generation and that's what I find really exciting and engaging."

Given that he's worked with everyone from Paul McCartney to U2 and Beth Orton to the Sugarcubes, it's almost invidious to ask him about one of his collaborations. Then again, he did work with Kate Bush on the Hounds of Love album and why would you not want to ask him about that?

"It was a very powerful experience for me and it shaped how I recorded afterwards because Kate had kind of pioneered working with the Fairlight Sampler. She invested what money she'd made on a studio at home. She was too restrained by album budgets for commercial studios. She likes to work slowly and methodically and take a long time and she likes to be in control of everything."

Bush's use of synths and computers was very much, he says, a portent for the future of music recording and his own subsequent career in the studio.

"When I came in I did The Big Sky and a couple of other B sides. All the drums and guitars were already there so I was just overdubbing to backing tracks and she would give direction. It was an amazing experience watching how she got the vibe going.

"She was very open about what she liked and didn't like. She was absolutely charming but very clear and focused. I remember her mum would bring in elevenses at 11, a big cake and loads of tea. It was a beautiful experience to be invited in and be a part of it."

Neither Youth nor Ruimy have played at Edinburgh during August before (though Youth has played in a Spiegeltent with the Orb and a burlesque act, he says).

What are they anticipating? "It's an amazing city and I'm really looking forward to knowing it and experiencing it," says Ruimy. "I'm very excited to be in that amazing melting pot of artists and shows."

ZIK'R is on at the Assembly George Square Gardens at 5.40pm from August 21 to August 30.