About this Event
El Khat is a homemade junkyard band led by multi-instrumentalist Eyal El Wahab. Named for the drug used so widely chewed across the Arab Peninsula, The band brings original compositions inspired by the music of the golden age in Aden, Yemen. El Wahab plays many instruments, like the dli and the Kearat that he constructed himself. It’s something he started doing several years ago, using his skills to make music from the items people discard. A child of the Yemeni diaspora who grew up in Tel Aviv Jaffa. it’s a practice that harks back to the family homeland, where even rubbish can have become an instrument. El Wahab has always been a man of invention. He talked his way into the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra as a cellist, self-taught from busking and unable to read music, learning the repertoire by ear as he went along, and picking up music theory. It gave him a strong foundation, but his world changed when he was given ‘Qat, Coffee & Qambus: Raw 45s from Yemen’ an LP of Yemeni traditional music from the 1960s. It came as an epiphany. He quit the orchestra, began building instruments and put together El Khat Albat Alawi Op.99, El Khat’s new album, released on March 2022 via Glitterbeat Records, celebrates an homage to Faisal Alawi, a popular Yemeni singer who died in 2010, along with an alba, a small tin box that can contain many treasures, while the Op.99 is intended to give the compositions “the same respect as Western classical music.”
Kamyar Arsani x Sunken Cages is Iranian multi-instrumentalist Kamyar Arsani and Indian-born drummer/electronic music producer Sunken Cages creating their own brand of digital folk music that draws on Sufi mysticism, traditional Persian Music, street rhythms from Mumbai and contemporary electronic music at once. Momin accompanies Arsani’s vocals and daf (frame-drum) with a masterful blend of electronic and acoustic percussion, including live-looping via his unique drum-loop performance system.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Bossa Bistro & Lounge, 2463 18th Street Northwest, Washington, United States
USD 20.00