Tamer Abu Ghazaleh

Three musicians who came of age in 1990s Cairo, their disparate paths in music intersect a couple of decades later when they’re drawn to each other’s work, and agree to meet at a seaside cabin in Alexandria, followed by residencies in Amman, Cairo, and Beirut to create and record a new album.

Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca and and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh, names that have turned heads in alternative Arabic music with solo albums and conspicuous collaborations.

Thulth takes us to lush and complex grounds with its rich sound, flowing with gentle melody and multiple sonic layers, and equally taking us into sudden ferocious walls of sound.

Sentiments of fury and restlessness, vocal prowess, gutsy modal twisting, fragmented structuring, constant shapeshifting in styles and – sometimes - dizzying vocal harmonies.

Aynama-Rtama (Arabic for “Wherever It Falls”) is a reflection of its time and environment. Recorded between Beirut and Cairo in 2014, it is a shape-shifting album that twists and turns when you least expect it. From the lead track Holako (Hulagu) – featuring a poem by late Iraqi poet Sargon Boulus (1944-2007) rendered into song for the first time – the band immediately reveal their intention. Louca’s gritty electronic percussion melds with Allami’s rhythmic oud, and builds until the explosion of a driving rhythmic section, backing Abu Ghazaleh’s frenzied Buzuq, leads to a cinematic climax of soaring strings and raging drums.

The record’s seven turbulent, entrancing and sometimes frenzied songs were written during a turbulent period of demonstrations, bombardment and invasion of Palestinian cities.

Composed during curfews, the album expresses everyday human emotions – love, hate, comfort, boredom, excitement – that were informed by the unreal experience of living in Palestine during the second Intifada.

Musical Theater, by an Egyptian theatre group that seeks alternative means of expressing the Arab human mind and heart, in a live performance through scenography, poetry, music, light, visuals, video-art, paint, in a rich mix of tools & emotions, written and directed by Salam Yousry.