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 on piano and electric guitar, with special guests on electronics, drums, and 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. "
Yamen Mekdad is a Syrian artist, filmmaker and community organiser based in London. His practice is an experimentation in radical collaboration with a focus on the relationship between sound and geography as well as the political possibility of sound. His interests in field recording, archiving, radio and grassroots organising led him to co-found the collectives Sawt of the Earth, Makkam and Sadaa Sound Syndicate. He is a frequent contributor to a number of radio stations, including Root, Balami, NTS and AlHara. Yamen is also curator and producer of Syrian Cassette Archives, the Syrian Arts and Culture Festival (SACF) and Sawt Syria a Boiler Room & Sadaa Sound Syndicate collaboration, exploring the inner worlds of the underground music scene in Syria and its exilic diaspora in Europe.
Tasos Stamou: is a Greek electroacoustic music composer and performing artist, a music technologist and a tutor, a studio and radio producer.
After migrating in U.K over a decade ago, his sound artstarted being inspired by the idea of nostalgia. His latest albums are combining electronic music with his South East Mediterranean heritage. He has performed in over 300 shows in Europe and in U.S.A in venues and festivals of innovative music (Bent Festival, Incumbate Festival, Supernormal Festival, Café OTO, Seanaps Festival, The Barbican, etc.). He has over 20 releases in independent music labels (Discrepant, Ikuisuus, Moving furniture, Coherent States, KukurukuRecordings, etc.). He has collaborated with several veterans of exploratory music, such as Steve Beresford, Anna Homler, Mike Cooper, Savina Yannatou, Adam Bohman, Tomomi Adachi.
Stamou is also leading workshops of improvised music, hardware hacking electronics for music production and workshops for younger audiences introducing contemporary music. In the last couple of years Stamou is also using radio as a medium,
as a podcast radio producer (Stegi Radio), guest producer or creator of radio art pieces.
Karagoz is a research, production and DJing duo (Yamen Mekdad & Tasos Stamou) focusing on East Mediterranean folk & pop with an experimental electroacoustic take.
