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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Hanno Leichtmann: ‘Skin, Wood, Traps’ (2018) – Installation at The 100 Years of Beat Festival – HKW

Installation at The 100 Years of Beat Festival - HKW, Hanno Leichtmann: 'Skin, Wood, Traps' (2018)

“The first drum set came on the market in 1918 and triggered a musical revolution: It took over urban dance music and established the triad of bass drum, snare and hi-hat as the combination used the world over. “

https://hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/2018/100_jahre_beat/100_jahre_beat_start.php

2018 was the 100th Anniversary of the modern instrument we call the ‘Drum Set’.  An event hosted at the ‘Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)’ in April 2018 titled ‘100 Jarhre Beat (100 Years of Beat)’ featured and celebrated this beautiful instrument, with concerts, talks, film screenings, and sound installation art such as Hanno Leichtmann‘s ‘Skin, Wood, Traps’ (2018), shown in the feature photo.

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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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