Sharif Sehnaoui: sound capsule

In sound capsule (2016), Sharif Sehnaoui proceeds to build a structure that will evolve over time during esma’/listen exhibition, within a specific acoustic space designed for short concerts which will be given at precise intervals. A recording from each of these concerts will be subsequently stretched over the duration of the exhibition, constructing a progressive multilayered composition. The work ends up exposing time itself by means of a process that travels from a primary structure through a saturated sound field.

Dates of the concerts

Wednesday 27 April
Sharif Sehnaoui (acoustic guitar)

Wednesday 11 May 
Nikos verities (cello)

Wednesday 1 June 
Tarek Atoui (electronic)

Wednesday 29 June 
Ghassan Sahhab (kanoun)

Wednesday 27 July 
Tony Elieh (electric bass)

Sharif Sehnaoui is a free improvising guitarist. He plays both electric and acoustic guitars, with (or without) extended and prepared techniques, focusing on expanding the intrinsic possibilities of these instruments without the use of effects or electronics. He now resides in Beirut, his hometown, after more than a decade in Paris, where he started his career as an improviser in 1998, playing at instants chavirés where he was a member of several orchestras. he has since performed his music worldwide and played in many clubs and festivals such as soundfield (Chicago), Moers, konfrontationen (nickelsdorf), météo music festival (Mulhouse), ctm & maerzmusik (berlin), fest (Tunis), skanu mesz (Riga), 100live (Cairo) or musikprotokoll (Graz). In Lebanon, he actively contributed to the emergence of an unprecedented experimental music scene. Along with Mazen Kerbaj, he created in 2000 Irtijal, the first improvised and new music annual international festival in the Arab world. Irtijal celebrated its xvth anniversary in 2015. He also runs two record labels: al Maslakh, devoted to ’publish the unpublishable on the Lebanese musical scene and annihaya, focusing on sampling, recycling and the displacement of various aspects of popular culture.

Nikos Verities is the founding member of “Mohammad”, a duo that have been forging their deep monolithic sound for the past 6 years, bringing together low frequencies, inter-modulations, dark textures, and distant folk nuances through custom made instruments and software. Verities founded in the late 1980s and early 1990s in trance 95″. In the late 1990s, verities turned to the experimental field, exploring sound mainly through the cello (which he destroyed during the “cello powder” performance in 2009).

Tarek Atoui is an electro-acoustic musician who initiates and curates multidisciplinary interventions, events, concerts, and workshops in Europe and the Middle East. Atoui was born in Lebanon in 1980 and moved to Paris in 1998 where he studied contemporary and electronic music at the French national conservatory of Reims. Co-artistic director of the steim studios, Amsterdam (2008), Atoui released his first solo album in the mort aux vaches series for the label staalplaat (Amsterdam/Berlin) in 2006-07. He builds new software for each project and specializes in creating computer tools for interdisciplinary art forms and youth education.

Ghassan Sahhab is a musicology researcher, a composer, and a professional musician. He is the co-founder of me’zaf musical cultural initiative, a Ph.D. candidate, and a musicology teacher at the Antonin University and the Lebanese American University. He performs as a soloist and with different ensembles in Lebanon and the world. He plays Levantine authentic music from the 19th and 20th centuries and he has also essays in the contemporary experimental music. Currently, he is preparing his first album my orient.

Tony Elieh was born in Beirut and holds a degree in marketing. Due to his artistic inclination, he decided to pursue creative fields, first in music – he was a founding member and bassist for scrambled eggs, the Lebanese post-punk band – and then in photography.