Contemporary Egyptian artist, musician, and writer Hassan Khan, who has been extensively showcased in Cairo this spring within the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival's (D-CAF) visual art programme, will perform at the Toulouse International Art Festival in France on Friday, 30 May.
Running from 23 May to 22 June this year, the Toulouse International Art Festival showcases visual arts and performing arts across various venues in Toulouse.
Khan will perform within L’Éveil du Printemps (Spring Awakening) — a programme of performances and concerts conceived by the Toulouse International Art Festival in collaboration with the Institut supérieur des arts de Toulouse and the Siestes Electroniques.
The Spring Awakening programme presents a mix between artists that have made their mark on the international scene and emerging artists. All the artists invited "try to re-think history and memory, subversively at times, questioning changes in the social and political corpus," according to the press release.
Hassan Khan performed Taraban for the first time at Falaki Theatre on Saturday, 26 April. The concert places songs by Sheikh Yousef El-Manyalawy (1847-1911) in a new, contemporary setting.
Together with classical musicians who play oud, qanoun, violin and riqq, Khan dissected their phrases and passages, before reconfiguring and restructuring them in the studio.
The new renditions were recorded over a series of sessions, and transfered to Khan's computer and then to the main mixer. He then used his own electronic system, which features a battery of feedback mixers, filters, processors, laptop manipulators, virtual synthesisers and live mikes, which he built and has been using over the past decade.
Between pre-recorded elements and onsite improvisation a dialogue is created entaling a re-articulation of the original pieces, making for a unique experience for the audience.
Source: Ahram Online