Previously at the ICA - Events

Nadah El Shazly. Photo credit: Sidy Benamar

Masāfāt: Oren Ambarchi, Mark Fell, Will Guthrie & Sam Shalabi

1 Sep 2016

The opening event to mark the launch of the Masafat features collective live performances by Oren Ambarchi, Mark Fell, Will Guthrie and Sam Shalabi. They are joined by Nadah El Shazly (Egypt).    

Mark Fell has been releasing music since the 1990s, combining his interests in computer-generated sound and dance culture. As one half of snd, he chews up rave rhythms until they were unrecognisable, and as Sensate Focus he turns house music inside out. Oren Ambarchi has a similar destructive approach to familiar musics, using his guitar to contort and mangle harsh noise, glacial minimalism, contemplative signal manipulation, free improvisation, krauty jamming, pummelling drumming and straight-up songwriting. Will Guthrie works across live performance, improvisation and studio composition using various combinations of drums, percussion, objects, junk, amplification and electronics.    

Ambarchi and Fell are joined by Egyptian-Canadian musician Sam Shalabi, whose work has seen him fuse shaabi, noise, classical and free improvisation; as well as being an Australian drummer, Shalabi is an adept improviser who works with everything from traditional percussion to everyday junk.

Sam Shalabi/The Wherewithall

Collaborating here for the first time, these are four performers that embrace mutating and shifting musical forms – and this performance promises a discombobulating musical experience.    

Joining them is Nadah El Shazly, the Cairo-based singer, composer and producer. Her productions and performances display myriad influences, but her disarming voice is always front and centre.

Nadah El Shazly: Ateyaton - ندا الشاذلي: آتية

  • Oren Ambarchi

    Oren Ambarchi’s works are hesitant and tense extended song forms located in the cracks between several schools: modern electronics and processing; laminal improvisation and minimalism; hushed, pensive songwriting; the deceptive simplicity and temporal suspensions of composers such as Morton Feldman and Alvin Lucier; and the physicality of rock music, slowed down and stripped back to its bare bones, abstracted and replaced with pure signal. Ambarchi has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists such as Fennesz, Charlemagne Palestine, Sunn 0)), Thomas Brinkman and Keiji Haino. Since 2001 Ambarchi has toured Europe, Nth America and Japan regularly and has performed at major festivals such as ATP (UK), Sonar (Spain), Mutek (Canada), CTM (Germany), INA GRM (France), Roskilde (Denmark), Etna Fest (Italy), Festival De Mexico (Mexico) and many more.

  • Mark Fell

    Mark Fell is a multidisciplinary artist based in Sheffield (UK). He studied experimental film and video art at Sheffield City Polytechnic. In 1998 he began a series of critically acclaimed record releases on labels including Mille Plateaux, Line, Editions Mego and Raster Noton. Fell is known for exploring the relationships between popular music styles, such as electronica and club music, and his typically academic approaches to computer-based composition. Fell’s practice has expanded to include moving image works, installation, choreography, critical texts and educational projects. He has worked with a number of artists including Yasunao Tone, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Ambarchi and Carl Michael Von Hausswolff. Fell's practice is reflected in the range and scale of international institutions that have presented his work which include - Hong Kong National Film archive, The Baltic (Gateshead), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona.Mark Fell is a multidisciplinary artist based in Sheffield (UK). He studied experimental film and video art at Sheffield City Polytechnic. In 1998 he began a series of critically acclaimed record releases on labels including Mille Plateaux, Line, Editions Mego and Raster Noton. Fell is known for exploring the relationships between popular music styles, such as electronica and club music, and his typically academic approaches to computer-based composition. Fell’s practice has expanded to include moving image works, installation, choreography, critical texts and educational projects. He has worked with a number of artists including Yasunao Tone, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Ambarchi and Carl Michael Von Hausswolff. Fell's practice is reflected in the range and scale of international institutions that have presented his work which include the Hong Kong National Film archive, The Baltic (Gateshead), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona.

  • Will Guthrie

    Will Guthrie is an Australian drummer/percussionist living in France. He works in many different settings of music: live performance, improvisation and studio composition using various combinations of drums, percussion, objects, junk, amplification and electronics. He plays solo and in various projects such as The Ames Room and The Sommes Ensemble. His music has been released on labels such as Gaffer Records, Erstwhile, Clean Feed, 23five, Editions Mego, Ipecac, iDEAL and his own Antboy Music label. Guthrie studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. In Nantes, France he is part of the collective CABLE# which also organizes regular concerts and an annual festival. Regular collaborators past and present include Jérôme Noetinger, Oren Ambarchi, Anthony Pateras, Chulki Hong, Keith Rowe, David Maranha, Toma Gouband, Erell Latimier, Ava Mendoza, Adam Sussmann, Matt Earle, Ren Walters, Helmut Schafer, David Ades and Mark Simmonds.

  • Sam Shalabi

    Sam Shalabi is an Egyptian-Canadian composer and improviser, living between Montreal, Quebec and Cairo, Egypt. His work has evolved from punk rock into a fusion of experimental, modern Arabic music that incorporates traditional Arabic, noise, classical, text, free improvisation and jazz. Shalabi has released five solo albums and has appeared on over sixty albums. He has also toured Europe, North America and North Africa. Shalabi’s recent projects include the release of a duo album with Stefan Christoff, two albums on the Italian label Sagittarius with Lebanese, Turkish and Egyptian musicians. He is also releasing a new composition called Isis and Osiris as well as releasing an album with The Dwarves Of East Agouza, a Cairo-based trio with Maurice Louca and Alan Bisho, alongside working on his sixth solo album.

  • Nadah El Shazly

    Nadah El Shazly is an Egyptian singer, composer and music producer living and working in Cairo. She is currently working on her debut album, continuing along her constantly evolving live set, which she has been performing the past few years. As well as composing, performing and producing her music using her voice and various electronic approaches, Nadah plays the sax, keys and percussions. Known for her versatile vocal prowess, Nadah’s journey in music is full of turns and shifts that sum up to give her sound myriad layers of influences. Before taking up sound art production training in Cairo, Nadah was consumed by early 20th century music in Egypt. Nadah studied psychology and theatre at the American University in Cairo until 2012. She has since been pursuing composition and music production, co-founding the Shorba duo with Egyptian artist Mohamed Shafiq, collaborating with Lebanese rapper and producer El Rass, producing a track for the collective Nassibian Orchestra and composing for film and visual art.

Masāfāt Music Pass: attend all four Masāfāt music events for £40

Masāfāt is a two-part festival taking place in London and Cairo this September. The festival is designed to create an open-ended, international platform to foster artistic and professional exchange between independent artists and professionals across the Middle East, North Africa and the UK.

Masāfāt has been organised by ThirtyThree ThirtyThree, VENT and the ICA, in partnership with the University of Kent

Supported by Arts Council England and the British Council

When

E.g., 19-10-2021
E.g., 19-10-2021