Irtijal 2022
Day 1 – Detailed Program

Thursday, March 31st, 2022
Ashkal Alwan – 8.00pm
Andria Nicodemou vibraphone
Marina Tantanozi flute
APLOMB is an improvisatory duo – the convergence of two unique voices, Marina Tantanozi on the flute and Andria Nicodemou on the vibraphone. Their story of music/life-making draws upon their shared love for improvisation and composition, and is bolstered by diverse musical vocabularies, from classical to experimental and eastern Mediterranean music. Their sound is vibrant, active, electric, taking unexpected turns. Flute and vibraphone produce tones that closely resemble sine waves, the purest vibrations in sound. Every timbre is a construction of sine waves beating against each other to produce a new wave form. The music of the duo is a gesture of breathing together, far from any aesthetic idea.
Thomas Ankersmit electronics
Mazen Kerbaj trumpet
Sharif Sehnaoui acoustic guitar
Raed Yassin double bass
Thomas Ankersmit is a musician and sound artist based in Berlin and Amsterdam. He plays the Serge Modular synthesizer, both live and in the studio, and collaborates with artists such as Phill Niblock and Valerio Tricoli. His music is released on the Shelter Press, PAN, and Touch labels, and combines intricate sonic detail and raw electric power, with a very physical and spatial experience of sound. Acoustic phenomena such as infrasound and otoacoustic emissions (sounds emanating from inside the head, generated by the ears themselves) play an important role in his work, as does a deliberate, creative misuse of the equipment.
“A” Trio is Lebanon’s oldest Lebanese improvisation group. Formed in 2002 in Beirut during the Irtijal’s second annual Festival of Experimental Music, they went on to record the first free jazz CD to be produced in the Arab world (“A”, La CDthèque, 2003). Their music later moved away from its jazz roots towards a more textural approach, relying strongly on prepared and extended techniques for a heavy diversion of their respective instruments. After a decade of working together in trio and various other contexts, Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui and Raed Yassin have finally reached a very characteristic sound that has been fondly described as “textural swing.” Creative yet simple, acoustic yet powerful, their live performances are oftentimes playful and rely on a strong visual component.
(Postcards + Fadi Tabbal + Sary Moussa)
Julia Sabra voice, synth, guitar
Marwan Tohmé electric guitar, voice
Pascal Semerdjian drums
Fadi Tabbal electric guitar
Sary Moussa synth, electronics
Postcards is a dream pop trio formed in 2012 in Beirut, Lebanon. Their music is defined by hushed vocals floating over expansive soundscapes that shift between harsh noise and dreamy atmospheres. Their third album, After the Fire, Before the End, came out on October 15, 2021. Written between January 2020 and January 2021, the album is a record of the devastating year that the country witnessed, through the eyes of the band; the slow demise of an uprising, the economic collapse, a crushing pandemic, and the explosion.
Sary Moussa is an electronic musician who has been active in the Beirut underground scene since 2008. His latest record “Imbalance” (Other People, 2019) finds Moussa revisiting the soundscapes of his childhood; from the echoes of political unrest, to Greek-Catholic chants, and the quiet nights of a secluded Southern village. The album combines sound design with intricate melodic arrangements to create a choir of synthesizers and noise singing in and out of sync.
Lebanese musician, producer and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal’s work consists of guitar pieces ranging from stripped acoustics to ambient and shoegazing-inspired treatments. Often referred to as “the hardest-working man in Lebanon’s alternative music scene”, Tabbal relocated to Beirut in 2006 following studies in sound engineering in Montreal, Canada; he promptly established Tunefork Recording Studios, a specialized work-space which offers customized services including full band recordings, live sound, music production and composition.
IRTIJAL 2022 CONCERTS ARE FREE OF CHARGE
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