This evening of solo and duo works by multi-instrumentalists Marwan Kamel and Julius Masri is a “first meeting” of these two artists; both of whom have a hybrid approach to traditional Arabic musical forms. Philadelphia’s own Masri is known for his improvised performances, collaborations with the dance community, and celebrated new album under the name Mephisto Halabi. Masri plays drums, circuit modified Casio keyboards, Oud, Kamancheh, and various other instruments. Chicago/Tunis based Kamel is a dedicated researcher and performer known for his project Daily Maqam. His palette includes oud, nay, buzuq, guitar, violin, and hand-percussion. With these beautiful instruments, the duo will journey through improvisations and compositions that celebrate Arabic music while pushing into unique, personal interpretations that suggest the future of these forms.
Date: November 11, 2023, Doors Open at 7:30 PM
Location: Pageant:Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Tickets: $20 General Admission, Students Pay What You Can
Julius Masri is a Philadelphia based multi instrumentalist, and performer/composer for the city's dance community. His music focuses on improvisatory methods and syncretic / linguistic exchanges within various musical languages including Jazz, Metal, AfroCuban, Experimental Noise, and Arabic music. Born in Tripoli, Lebanon, he moved to the States in 1990 and picked up drumming a year later. He studied with Philadelphia instructors Carl Mottola, Elaine Hoffman-Watts, and as an undergraduate at Bard College, with AACM's Thurman Barker, Richard Teitelbaum, and Joan Tower. He currently performs in groups such as grind/crust metal bands Night Raids, Nomad War Machine, free jazz groups Sirius Juju, Spectral Forces, Dromedaries, trombone & synth duo Superlith, and has released the solo album "The Arabic Room", under the project name Mephisto Halabi to international acclaim in 2021. He has performed with Henry Grimes, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Bobby Zankel, Thurman Barker, Jaap Blonk, Randi Potoppidan, members of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Festivals performed include Sonic Circuits DC (2013, 2016), High Zero Baltimore (2016), Maryland DeathFest (2015, 2017), Shadow Woods Metal Festival(2017), The Outsiders Improvised & Creative Music Festival (2016, 2018). Julius is a recipient of a 2022 Yaddo Fellowship for composition, the 2022 University of the Arts creative research and innovation grant.
Marwan Kamel, based in Chicago and Tunis, is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who plays and performs on oud, nay, buzuq, guitar, violin, and hand-percussion, as well as others. His work's lifelong vision explores the colloquial textures of Western punk and experimental musics and their boundaries and interaction with melodically-complex maqam modalities. He has composed original music for some small-scale films and has performed internationally with various projects at festivals such as Richard Thompson's Meltdown Festival in London, South by Southwest, Berlin Social Muscle Club, and Sundance Film Festival. He also hosts a weekly live looping show on Istanbul-based Root Radio. He is currently studying at the Rachidia in Tunis and teaches regularly online and in Chicago. In addition, he is researching rare classical maqam music and experimenting with new forms to create instrumental melodies and musical works at the nexus of past and future. His project Daily Maqam embodies all of these elements in hypnotic, modernistic, long-format improvisations building ethereal worlds that are born and die in the same moment.
Leyya Mona Tawil is an artist, curator, and cultural activist. She is the founder and director of Arab.AMP - a platform for experimental music, live art, and ideas from the SWANA diaspora and our allied communities. Her performance and social practice works have toured throughout Europe, the Arab region, and the states. Tawil is on the curatorial team of Live In America (Arkansas), the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn), Southern Exposure Gallery (SF), Daring Dances (Ann Arbor) and was the 2020 ISSUE Project Room Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow for her NOMADIC SIGNALS series which continues into 2023. She also directs TAC Temescal Art Center in Oakland, California. @arab.AMP