Bana Haffar is a meandering electronic musician, field recordist, and bass player. She has released music with Touch, Vent, and Make Noise records and composed for Grammy-winning percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion. In 2014 together with Eric Cheslak, Bana founded “Modular on the Spot” in Los Angeles. She is a co-founder of the Beirut Synthesizer Center.

German musician Hans-Joachim Irmler, the man behind the legendary FAUST and Irtijal’21’s guest of honor, will conduct a 3-day intensive workshop with Lebanese musicians Sandy Chamoun, Antonio Hajj, Farah Kaddour, Anthony Sahyoun, Pascal Semerdjian and Marwan Tohme. This workshop will conclude with an ensemble performance at The Ballroom Blitz, on the closing night of Irtijal’21.

Born in 1950, Hans-Joachim Irmler began experimenting with sound-generating technology at a very early age, building his first organ while still in his teens. In 1969, he moved to Hamburg where he studied art and worked for television. There, he was quickly drawn into a collective of musicians and filmmakers, crystallizing to a band that would later be named Faust and which subsequently became known to people interested in avantgarde music all over the world. The band negotiated a contract with Polydor in 1971 in which they were granted their own studio and custom-buildt sound-processing equipment- enabling the very own combination of familiar sounds with electronically distorted and electronically generated sounds.

This musical and technological transmutation has become the leitmotiv of Irmler’s aesthetic. He always looked for ways to transmute common sounds into new, unheard soundscapes, working with self-built or heavily customized equipment. After starting his own keyboard-workshop in 1975 and after years of Faust-transformations, Irmler went on to form his own label Klangbad in 1996, on which he published not only Faust but also other bands (including Cluster, Circle, Ectogramm, Nightingales, Ole Lukkoye, … to name but a few) he recorded in the label’s own studio. In 2004, the studio relocated to the premises of a disused paper factory in the rural Swabian village Scheer. It contains all of Irmler’s equipment built over the last 30 years as well as new, computer-based recording tools. Initially established as a thank-you-party for the volunteers that helped building up the new studio, Irmler then curated the internationally acclaimed Klangbad Festival, running it until 2011 as a multiverse of avantgarde and experimental music.

Anthony Sahyoun is a Lebanese composer, musician and producer. In 2015 he co-founded instrumental rock outfit Kinematik. As a solo artist, he works on electronic processing of acoustic elements, programming, drone and ambient music – his music has been described as “apocalyptic, rich and emotionally charged.” Anthony also scores music for film and for sound installations. His side projects include electronic duo Stress Distress with guitarist Fadi Tabbal, experimental duo NP with producer Jad Atoui, duo May Berde with drummer Teddy Tawil, and Lebanese drone octet The Quiet Sanctuary. In 2018, he joined the ranks of Tunefork Studios, where he works as a producer and mixing engineer.

Marwan Tohme is a Lebanese composer and sound engineer. He is a co-founding member of Lebanese dream pop outfit Postcards and is the band’s co-composer, guitarist and bassist. He has been active in the Lebanese independent music scene as a recording/live musician and engineer as part of the Tunefork studios team, and has been part of the Bunny Tylers and the Incompetents.

Director of The Ballroom Blitz and permanent resident of the Goldroom, Moe Choucair aka Bakisa works to build a sustainable scene in the Middle East, with programs that debut genres regularly on Friday nights. Under the “JACKTHEFISH” moniker, Moe internationally guested clubs, festivals, radio shows, and special showcases including two Boiler Rooms and a Mixmag documentary. He is also an editor of the Ballroom Express, a publication made to discuss musicians and art from the Middle Eastern region. His recent work involves online collaborative work around the world (wide web).