March 2024 | London
AWAN FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT
Late Night Jazz: Yazz Ahmed
Thursday 29 Feb at 9.30pm (Doors: 9pm)
Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room, London SW7 2AP
Renowned trumpeter and composer Yazz Ahmed performs in the Elgar Room, opening the 10th edition of AWAN Festival.
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Yazz has garnered global acclaim with her own distinct brand of psychedelic-Arabic-jazz. Her career has included collaborations with Radiohead and Transglobal Underground, and commissions for Adult Swim and Blue Note.
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Winning multiple rave reviews for her albums La Saboteuse (2017) and Polyhymnia (2019), Downbeat Magazine named her as an artist set to shape the future of jazz over the next decade. In 2020, she won two Jazz FM awards - Jazz Act of the Year and Jazz Album of the Year, plus the Ivor Novello Award for Innovation in Composition.
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Produced By Arts Canteen in association with the Royal Albert Hall. Supported by Arts Council England, Bagri Foundation and Cockayne foundation.
Sudan in Focus: Basma and Ola
Saturday 2 March at 7pm
Rich Mix, London E1 6LA
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Join us for a night of Sudanese sounds and poetry with Basma and Ola.
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Taking inspiration from the sounds of zar and zanig, Ola and Basma sketch the Sudan of their dreams through spoken word and records.
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Basma will open and close the evening with a DJ set based on Sudanese faves, along with footage from personal archives. She is the host of Khartoum Arrivals on NTS Radio and the co-host of radio show and record label Hear, Sense and Feel. She plays music inspired by the long road, drawing from the wedding anthems and eclectic folk of Sudan, the Sahel, the Horn and beyond.
Ola Elhassan is a Sudanese poet/researcher/electrical engineer in South London. Sometimes her poetry experiments with, and about, music, mathematics, physics, and dancing. She is a resident poet and member of the Common Sound collective.
AWAN Re-Sisters: Sounds and Echos
Friday 8 March at 8.30pm
Rich Mix, London E1 6LA
A phenomenal lineup of DJs and musicians mixing sounds from the Arab world and beyond.
Featuring sets from: ETAF + HAWAZIN + HABIB-TATI
ETAF is a Kuwaiti/Palestinian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist currently living in London.
HABIB-TATI is an Iraqi/Iranian-Armenian DJ who is passionate about decolonising music by blending the sounds of SWANA music and drum beats that reflect her identity and values.
Hawazin Al Otaibi is a Saudi interdisciplinary artist, curator, DJ and music producer.
Amena
Saturday 9 March at 7.30pm
Rich Mix, London E1 6LA
Egyptian singer Amena takesover Rich Mix for a night of live music.
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Amena blends her cultural roots with the soulful vibes of Jazz, creating music that connects with people from all walks of life.
Catch her live at Rich Mix, where she'll bring her latest project to the stage. Drawing inspiration from early Egyptian Folk music legends like Sheikh Imam and Sayed Darwish, she puts her unique twist on their timeless compositions.
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Amena is joined by Josh Stidwill on the keyboard, Ziad Hisham on guitar and Anmol Mohara on drums.
Protest Sounds Festival Finale
with LUMA and Nihal
Saturday 30 March at 8.30pm
Rich Mix, London E1 6LA
Join us for a night of electronic music, soundscapes, and field recordings centred on protest, revolution, and solidarity across the Arab diaspora.
Music is inherently political, reflecting a way of being, and has always served as a form of resistance, particularly when other forms of resistance have been silenced. Explore this concept with LUMA and our special guests throughout the evening as they present sets that delve into protest from Palestine to Sudan.
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LUMA is a British-Iraqi DJ, radio host and club promoter. She has been establishing her presence in the London music scene and beyond with her eclectic selection of high energy sounds, playing at fabric, Boiler Room, Jazz Cafe, Keep Hush and Boomtown Festival and globally in Berlin, Amman, Switzerland and Bethlehem. LUMA runs Habibti Nation, consistently sold out party and monthly radio show on Balamii, showcasing underground electronic music from SWANA and the Arabic speaking world with a focus on femxle, gender nonconforming and trans artists.
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Nihal is an Egyptian DJ, radio host, writer and researched based in London, with a show on NTS radio. Influenced by her hometown Cairo’s underground scene, she selects contemporary left-field hip hop, drill, drum & bass and experimental sounds from SWANA capturing the organic crossovers traversing the region.