There are no rules… Improvising and (De)constructing the Sonic Layers of Beirut with Recordat and Frequent Defect

As I stumble to navigate through the busy traffic and local customs, ‘Which part/side of the road am I supposed to walk on?’, I ask Ibrahim Owais, founder of Recordat and one-part of Radio Alhara, the communal radio station from Palestine. ‘There are no rules,’ he laughs, and we walk and weave on further until Gouraud turns into Armenia Street. As soon as we make a turn leaving the bustling Armenia street lined with loud bars, into the Geitawi residential neighborhood, there’s a darkness I’m not used to (Beirut has gone off-grid since the power plant failed to procure oil, private back-up generators and solar panels make up for the essentials), and I’m feeling the comfort of being accompanied by my travel companions, the Recordat tour crew. Owais has brought with him Elvin Brandhi a frequenter of the Beirut underground scene, 3Phaz from Cairo, Iranian photographer and radio DJ Niloofar Asghary, and soon to join the traveling band is Berlin based experimental sound artist and dj Sara Persico originally from Naples. We are headed to Riwaq Beirut where Owais is music selector for the night.

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Review: CTM Festival 2019 (Meanwhile in Tokyo…)

The CTM Festival 2019 took place in Berlin spanning thru January to February. Over the course of the 10 festival dates, numerous concerts, club nights, exhibitions, workshops and discussions were held.

It’s hardly impossible to attend all of the Programs as many of the events are overlapped, so every participant had a different experience and out take from this “Festival for Adventurous Music.”


My personal adventure, ventured on a little bit longer after the festival, up till now as I look back in Tokyo, as the impressions received from the festival sparked questions, surprises, and findings of new favorite artists and performance styles.

These impressions and the physical leap from Berlin to Tokyo resulted in this review to include a subjective correlation seen between the acts at CTM and what’s going on right now in Tokyo. Conclusion is, the two cities aren’t so far away, and Tokyo has an adventurous playground too.

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Making a Scene DIY: Multiversal and beyond (Part Two)

The duo playing in the dimly lit room, was Constanza Piña a Chilean techno experimentalist and techno-feminism activist, and čirnŭ a musician from Bergen, Norway. The duo’s heavy thick drone-y industrial sounds filled and trembled the air in the room.

After the duo’s performance, some in the audience gathered around the table to examine the duo’s equipment. “This is a radio, and this (pointing to a thick large sheet metal wired with a mic) is a pick-up. It collects feedbacks and the sound is circulating,” čirnŭ explained.
The heavy sheet of metal gave the impression of an ecological statement, not because it was recycled material, but because of the function. Circulating and recycling sound, involving the environment of the entire room until it rumbled to every corner.

Amazed by the variety of gear the duo had wired up, I asked čirnŭ if ‘there was any gear in the past that he got and never used, or had regretted buying?’ His answer was superb. “Never!”he shook his head with a big grin, a grin that told more than any words.

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Sensory Tech and Robot Kinetic Music: Man vs the Machine – Eli Keszler // Mouse on Mars Dimensional People Ensemble – Concert Report

Eli Keszler, ACUD Macht Neu, 2018.11.21 // Photo by: Marcelina Wellmer

(Topics: Eli Keszler, Mouse on Mars Dimensional People Ensemble, Jan St.Werner, Moritz Simon Geist, Rashad Becker, Greg Fox, Sensory Percussions, Squarepusher+Z Machine-Music For Robots,  Bram Stadhouders, Actress+Young Paint)


It was during a music festival that I met Siddhi, who was working on her PhD researching sensory technology for artificial limbs. We were both foreigners staying at the same guest house, similar in age and both music lovers we naturally became friends.  She was passionate for music and also a sax player herself, but a telling of hard wired scientist showed, thru normal small talks such as, ‘So what’d ya do?’.  She told me about her field, which began by explaining countless unfamiliar technologies that are already invented and utilized, and that her lab specifically, was inventing ‘Artificial skin that have senses’.  …3D printing a sensor onto bio artificially grown skin??? I had no idea, that robotic limbs were already invented, let alone the force to move it with your mind… Yes, ‘The Force’ is an applied science now. Isn’t that a dream come true. SF is just S.

“So, you think about it, and it moves? Impossible.”

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