Aya Metwalli “Beitak” (eg)
Aya Metwalli voice, electronics

“This is it; this is my baggage. Take it, I don’t want it anymore. This is to freeing myself. This is to burning pictures and letters and memories. This is to fire. This is to emptying containers. This is to music that has been written so long ago it’s almost rotten.”

In February 2017, after a two year musical hiatus, Aya Metwalli released an EP of recent works entitled “Beitak”. For her first performance in Irtijal, she will introduce her new sound in a live set of vocal and electronic soundscapes.

Khyam Allami (iq)
Khyam Allami oud, electronics

Following a long absence from solo performances, Khyam Allami returns with a curious double-bill: Solo by Karl-Heinz Stockhausen (1966), a Lebanese premiere of this rarely performed work, presented on the oud for the first time, followed by “Kawalees (Alpha v0.1)”, an improvisation exploring some of Allami’s recent experimental musical research on oud, buzuq, electronics and Xenakis-inspired percussion.

Marc Codsi (lb)
Marc Codsi analog & modular synthesizers, electronics

Marc Codsi is a Lebanese composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was a member of emblematic Lebanese rock band Scrambled Eggs for many years, before focusing his attention on electronic rock duo Lumi and his own solo activities. He released his first solo album in 2010, a becalmed, poetic manifesto entitled Faded Postcards, followed by Works & Coincidences in 2013. He is currently pursuing his career as a musician and performer in solo and with Lumi, and works as a record producer and film composer.

Irtijal is proud to present the results of an electronic music workshop that took place in Beirut in December 2016, in collaboration with music networking platform Simsara and renowned Swedish electronic studio Elektronmusikstudion (EMS). The workshop invited musicians from Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia to collaborate with talented Swedish producers and engineers Mats Lindström and Daniel Araya from EMS, in the creation of customized electronic instruments for use in subsequent live and studio performances. This collective ensemble performance will be led by Lebanese electronic authority Tarek Atoui in one of his rare appearances in Lebanon, and will feature both participants to the EMS workshop and musicians performing in Irtijal’17.