17–18 July 2026
“Women’s Voices: Kurdish Sound Archive and Beyond” presents two immersive evenings at Café OTO exploring Kurdish sonic memory, archival storytelling, and live performance. 17 July focuses on rare historical recordings of women's voices from across Kurdistan. The evening features a panel discussion and sound exhibition led by Zeyneb Yas Salam and her team, followed by live performances that reimagine the traditional dengbêj vocal tradition through contemporary artistic approaches. 18 July turns to contemporary Kurdish home archives in London, with a video presentation offering a glimpse into personal family collections, followed by a solo performance responding to these intimate recordings. Across both evenings, archival listening, conversation, and experimental performance come together to reveal the richness, diversity, and resilience of Kurdish women's voices across generations. A selection of Kurdish music releases and cultural merchandise will also be available throughout the festival.
Please see individual day listings above for full programme.
On 17 July, Kurdish vegan and vegetarian snacks will be served. On 18 July, Café OTO will transform into a restaurant setting, where a full Kurdish vegan meal will be served during the evening. Food is included in your ticket; drinks are not included!
Across the festival, explore Kurdish music releases and cultural merchandise, including cassette and CD editions, the first limited vinyl pressing of Hasan Zirak, books from Afsana Press, and Kurdish wind instruments, posters, postcards, and tote bags.
Zeynep Yaş Salam, born in Siirt, is a Kurdish music researcher and archivist who has dedicated her career to preserving oral culture and Kurdish musical heritage, especially women’s contributions. After her family’s migration to Istanbul post-1980, she began documenting Kurdish oral traditions in 1991. A graduate of Marmara University, she conducted influential research on women in Kurdish culture, collaborating internationally and compiling anthologies, music albums, and catalogues of Kurdish artists. Her works include the publication of “ŞAKARÊN MUZÎKA KURDÎ,” studies on Kurdish female vocalists, and numerous articles. Since 2012, she has served as the founder and curator of the Diyarbakır City Museum, continuing her efforts in cultural preservation and archiving.
https://www.instagram.com/zeynebyash
Siavash Namehshiri is a Zurich-based Kurdish composer, sound artist, collaborator, curator, and community organiser. His work explores artistic creation as an evolving dialogue, using sound and noise to channel memories and challenge monolingual artistic narratives.
Engaging in contextual and interdisciplinary collaborations, he works with Field recordings, samples, synthesisers, vocals and experimental sound techniques across radio, film, theatre, and live performances. He is also an early member of MigrArt, a platform centred on facilitating artistic exchange and production among artists who have experienced racism.
“Deng” means “sound” and “bêj” means “to tell” in Kurdish. “Dengbêj” is a traditional singer-storyteller who goes from village to village to perform Klam, meaning the word in Kurdish, Persian, Arabic, and Turkish — yet only in Kurdish, also a song.
Hêja Netirk, a native of Kurdistan now living in exile, reimagines this tradition in a new space. Connecting to the roots with cables. She is the Dengbêj in the Disco.
Moment is an experimental, free-improvisational duo by Hardi Kurda and Khabat Abas. The duo focuses on the moment when sounds emerge through interaction, reflection, reaction, and interruption. Hardi and Khabat aim to share their experience of sound-making with the audience and to explore a world of sounds and noises from East to West.
Links: hardikurda.com and khabatabas.com
Link to the album: https://space21.bandcamp.com/album/broken-resonance
Dr. Hardi Kurda is a sound artist, improviser, and researcher with a PhD in Music from Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the founder of SPACE21, a platform for sound art and experimental music in Slemani, and Archive Khanah, an interactive sound archive project inspired by the philosophy of computer gaming, featuring coloured cassettes and recorded sounds from Kurdistan and Iraq.
Hardi's work explores radio noise and sonic traces often considered illegal, abandoned, unheard, invisible, broken, distorted, or forgotten — sounds without a place or destination. He developed the concept of “The Found Score”, which is an Urgent Listening method that navigates attention toward non-auditory senses. His listening’s approach rooted in his personal experience of migration and crisis during an illegal journey to Europe.
Khabat Abas (2026 fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin programme) is an experimental cellist, improviser, and composer from Iraqi Kurdistan. She moves freely between artistic discipline and possibilities. Her works are inspired by a broad collection of methods, including noise, improvisation, and narrative storytelling as individual approaches. Therefore, she searches for unheard sounds or undiscovered spaces. Khabat is probably best known for her adapted cello and improvisational work exploring extended techniques, through which she started developing pieces that respond to the objects that are surrounding her or to her childhood memories. In her practice, she raises questions about what is out of bounds, raising the possibilities of sounds that cannot be controlled – in contrast to traditional musical values.
Suna Alan is a Kurdish Alevi singer based in London, whose artistry is deeply rooted in traditional Kurdish dengbêj (bard) music and shaped by the rich cultural diversity of her upbringing in Izmir, Turkey. While Kurdish folk songs are her primary focus, her repertoire extends to encompass Armenian, Greek, Arabic, Sephardic, and Turkish music.
Recognized for her contributions to music and culture, Suna was featured in the UK-based creative journalism platform Brush & Bow’s Women Role Models Project in 2018. She has graced prestigious stages such as the Southbank Centre, as part of the "Women in Music" concert series, and the Royal Albert Hall, performing with the Solidarity Ensemble to support earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria.
In August 2024, she was the sole performer at the TEDxKings Parade St event in Cambridge, themed "TRANSFORMED." Her involvement with SOAS University’s Kurdish Band and Rebetiko Band has further broadened her international presence, allowing her to perform in numerous concerts and festivals across the UK and beyond.
Suna’s music is a celebration of heritage, resilience, and the shared humanity that transcends cultural boundaries.
https://www.youtube.com/sunaalan12
