Baskot Lelbaltageyya – بسكوت للبلطجية (eg)
Anwar Dabbour synthesizer, electronics

It’s a whole new world, but Baba still feels like he doesn’t need to tell the kids what he does, or why he does it. What is it, you ask? A delicious hybrid. One part cream, one part bubble gum, all for the greater good. Because certainly, Baba knows best. Baba loves you. Nighty night. Don’t let the street thugs bite. Mr. Dabbour can already hear you wondering with grimaced faces:

“Is this… rebellion?”

No. Just a brand new dance.

Mats Lindström (sw)
Mats Lindström electronics

Mats Lindström performs electronic music as a sound artist, composer and musician. He has worked with visual arts, scenic elements, installations and with music for theatre, opera, dance and radio. He often constructs and builds specific electronic instruments and equipment for his projects. He is the director of the renowned Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm since 2004.

Thomas Lehn & Tiziana Bertoncini (de/it)
Tiziana Bertoncini violin
Thomas Lehn synthesizer

Tiziana Bertoncini and Thomas Lehn have been collaborating since 2002. The special feature of their duo is the alchemy created by the meeting of the classical and the electronic instruments. The different nature of sound, the characteristics and histories of violin and analogue synthesizer could recall a friction. Actually, what happens is a sort of mirror game, in which the roles of the instruments are continuously exchanged. Bertoncini and Lehn move in an abstract territory, their approach to sound is contemporary. Nevertheless their consideration to music is quite classical insofar as based principally on tension/release, rupture, intensity and expressivity in all its facets. Bertoncini and Lehn were involved in several multimedia projects as musicians and performers.

Tony Elieh was a founding member of Scrambled Eggs, one of Beirut’s most prolific and talented rock bands of the early 2000’s, and remained with the group from its beginnings until its precocious demise in 2015. Elieh is nowadays a member of improvising experimental ensembles Karkhana and Electric Wormholes. He has contributed to the soundtracks of several Lebanese feature films, including A Perfect Day and Je Veux Voir by Lebanese directors Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas, Crayon Of Askalan by Laila Hotait, as well as recent films by Nadim Tabet and Daniele Arbid. He has also performed a live accompaniment to Lebanese dancer Pierre Geagea’s performance Mother Tongue with Lebanese musician and Irtijal founder Sharif Sehnaoui.

Tony Elieh’s first solo album, entitled It’s Good To Die Every Now and Then (Al Maslakh Records #020), will be released exclusively during Irtijal’17

Nur is an Egyptian electronic producer, singer and sound artist. She recently received her Master’s degree from Goldsmiths University in London, where she studied Sonic Arts. Nur’s sound displays the influence of “Musique Concrète” and Electroacoustic music, as well as her deep interest in Islamic religious music and ethno-musicological research and compositions. She is particularly fascinated in integrating the human element within the electronic music context, which is why she frequently uses vocals, body sounds and field recordings in her work. Nur is currently exploring experimental dance music, as well as multi-channel microtonal sound compositions.

It is difficult to pin down the work of musician and video artist Shinigami San. Fascinated with improvisation, he strives to bring the element of risk and the unforeseen to electronic music, and can move easily from sustained clubbing rhythms to ambient noise. An essential actor of Tunisia’s contemporary electronic scene, he is the founder of the collective World Full of Bass, and has contributed to the FEST and Hextradecimal festivals since 2005..

Cairo-based ZULI debuted on Lee Gamble’s UIQ label with the Bionic Ahmed EP to resounding acclaim from JUNO, Fact, and The Vinyl Factory in early 2016. In Cairo he’s a key player in the KiK (Kairo is Koming) group and one of the heads behind the city’s pivotal collective VENT. With DJ support from Demdike Stare and Kode9 on Radio 1, ZULI’s debut 12″ covers a unique electronic perspective, taking cues from classic UK rufige and Æ’s computer music as well as hip hop. Those disparate junctures can be discerned in his  takeover for Lee Gamble’s NTS show, his JunoPlus podcast, his own monthly NTS show and soon enough on his upcoming 12″s.