Wednesday 2 October 2024, 7.30pm
Dirar Kalash is a Palestinian musician and sound artist whose work spans a wide range of musical and sonic practices within a variety of instrumental, compositional and improvisational contexts. He is mostly known for his politically driven soundscape / electro-acoustic project "The Sonic Front", and the compositions "we can't breathe (for eric garner, george floyd, and frantz fanon)" and "by any means necessary (for Malcolm X)"
For this session, Dirar will be joined by surprise guests to form an electric free jazz ensemble, performing electro-acoustic pieces with recent sounds from Palestine and Lebanon.
After a year of zionist massacres, encompassing all of Palestine, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon -added to decades of occupation and looting- we see little to no change in policy from the pitiful halls of government in the US, UK and Europe while mainstream western media outlets continue to be nothing but another wing of imperialist propaganda. What can poetry and sound do in a time like this? Be a witness to the violence, archive the pain and the triumphs of the martyrs and reject normalization of white supremacist violence anywhere we see it. Violence comes on all fronts therefore we must resist on all fronts. – Sonic Front. Cafe Oto, Oct 2, 7;30pm.
Dirar Kalash : electronics / guitar / piano / saxophone
JAAR : electronics / piano
Max Hallett : drums
John Edwards : bass
"The first thing you notice about [Kalash's piano playing] is the space that lingers between the notes, as if their selection is a matter of great decision. There is a thorough examination of the keyboard as if it were a palette, studying the canvas and trying to figure how to connect the strokes. This provides an inkling to his thought processes.... At other points, it is like following somebody down a dark path with the terrain constantly changing and you are unable to see properly, just allowing your guide to be your direction. "
Nicolás Jaar, 34, was born in NY to Chilean parents and raised between Santiago and New York. Since 2008, he has released music under various guises spanning shades of pop, ambient, noise, and club music. Since 2013, he has curated the Other People label, releasing the visual & audio work of artists Maziyar Pahlevan, Africanus Okokon, Jena Myung, and the music of Aho Ssan, Saint Abdullah, Dienne, Pierre Bastien and Lydia Lunch among others. In recent years, Nicolás has mainly focused on education, teaching sound-editing and listening workshops to emerging musicians and non-musicians alike in institutions such as the Museo de la Memoria in Santiago, Chile, AdBK in Munich, Germany, free.wav in Attappadi, India, Festival 4x4, Chiapas, Mexico, Dar Jacir and Alrowwad in Bethlehem, Palestine, among others. His latest project is called "Archivos de Radio Piedras". It's a 3h 1/2 long radio play set in the near future in Chile. His debut collection of stories "Isole" was released by Timeo, an Italian publishing house, in February 2024. Nico is also part of the "Shock Forest Group", "Darkside", and was one of the founders of "Musicians for Palestine".
Max Hallett is best known for drumming in the trio The Comet Is Coming alongside bandmates Shabaka Hutchings on saxophone and keyboardist Dan Leavers, who he also has a drum and synth duo with called Soccer 96.
Soccer96 play everything completely live, with no laptops, sequencers or software of any kind. They create brutal, frenetic energy, Tron-like soundscapes and super-fresh polyrhythms. "Distilled reduction meets epic intent."
John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke and many others.
"I think John Edwards is absolutely remarkable: there’s never been anything like him before, anywhere in jazz." - Richard Williams, The Blue Moment
Karagoz is a research, production and DJing duo (Yamen Mekdad & Tasos Stamou) focusing on East Mediterranean folk & pop with an experimental electroacoustic take.
