posts on the norient space by Eric Mandel

The musician Ata Ebtekar, aka Sote, is helping to build an experimental music scene from Iran and Iranians abroad: contemporary music that engages with tropes of the past. On the occasion of his performance «Parallel Persia» at the music festival «Donaueschinger Musiktage», which is dedicated to adventurous music since its founding in 1921, Norient asked how much this music might tell about the future.

Bryan Littles’ film «The African Cypher» portrays dance subcultures in South Africa of which some have close relationships to cars. For Eric Mandel, this is symbol of man and machine.

What remains of music beyond its usual contexts of geography or identity? For «Untraining the Ear», the Berlin gallery Savvy Contemporary invited Tara Transitory to demand listeners to erase the obligation to put every sound in a context.

The Lebanese musician Malikah started to rap out of rage. She travels between the streets of Beirut to Europe’s avant-garde spaces. Norient caught up with her to talk about her sense of belonging in an English-speaking, male-dominated hip hop scene.

Yasmine Hamdan, hyped singers of the Arab world, talks about her fascination for Asmahan Al-Atrash being the first female punk and Western misconceptions of the Arab worlds.

Aus der Geschichte gelernt: Der Film «A Story of Sahel Sounds» erzählt von einem Labelmacher aus den USA, der Musiker aus Afrika veröffentlicht und Touren organisiert – mit DIY- und Fairtrade-Ethos statt kultureller Ausbeutung.

Tamer Abu Ghazaleh is one of the key figures of Egypts independent music scene. Norient caught him to talk about curating music, cha’abi and egyptian futurism.

Buraka Som Sistema – J-Wow (João Barbosa), DJ Riot (Rui Pité), Kalaf Ângelo, Andro Carvalho and newest member Blaya are in the world of Kuduro key players even though they are – in a way – outsiders, both geographically and sound-wise. An Interview.

Das erste hebräische Groove-Festival in Tel Aviv bot für 120 Schekel binnen acht Stunden vier Bands und eine Handvoll DJs – eine volle Packung, für wenig Geld.