Tuesday 7 April 2026, 7.30pm
Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler unravel a musical universe of possibilities; “a unison of timbres, cultures complementing, the complicity of verses, and modes and languages confronting each other” in the duo’s own way of communicating respective origins and contemporaneity. Lyrical, within a sound full of contrast and ornamentation, they pursue an expansion of their repertoire with imaginative interpretation and improvisation.
Hinging on a practice of interrogating their hearing and their expression, their research and their desire, Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler draw a universe where everything seems possible. It is a unison of stamps, cultures completing each other, sentences colliding with each other, modes and languages meeting each other. It's a way of communicating their respective roots and presents. Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler let us gradually see the tenants and secrets of their artistic conversation. The alchemy of their exchange unveils a voyage into a unique, unheard sound.
As part of Kamilya Jubran’s Beyond 1932 Residency at King’s College London, the duo will perform و WA (Arabic for ‘and’), their third album (2019 Everest Records er_093 ). With widely open ears and expanding desires to enrich their capacity of dialogue, of interplay, the 20-years-old-duo continue their exploration of new sonic and phonetic territories with monthly residencies at Prozess Bern where they extended و, during 2022-2023.
The performance will be followed by a short Q&A with the artists.
The residency series is organised by Dr Rim Irscheid, practice-led researcher at King’s College London. The Beyond 1932 project is funded by the EPSRC via the UKRI/EC HE Guarantee ERC scheme (funder Award Reference: EP/X022749/1).
Musician, composer and one of the most revered figures for today’s younger generation of experimental and alternative Arabic music scenes, Kamilya Jubran (text, oud & vocals), collaborates with long standing musical partner, composer, accomplished trumpet player and seasoned electronic musician Werner Hasler (trumpet & electronics). They have been collaborating since 2002. Their first collaboration Mahattaat was their earliest experiment into bringing together disparate cultural and artistic roots. Their next collaboration, Wameedd, released in 2004, combined Jubran’s vocal skill and limitless imagination with Hasler’s melodies and his original aesthetics in electronic music. The duo then released Wanabni in 2010 followed by Wasl in 2016, featuring French double bass player Sarah Murcia. 2019 they have released Wa, a 45’ Suite of music.
After her long career as the lead singer and qanoun player with the monumental Palestinian group Sabreen, Kamilya Jubran moved to Europe in 2002 and continued her search for an original musical expression on vocals and oud, whilst exploring new spaces and horizons for her compositions and texts through the various projects she instigates and is part of. Werner Hasler and Sarah Murcia featured in her first solo project Mahattaat in Switzerland in 2002, since then both becoming her main musical collaborators. Her collaborations with other artists include Sylvain Cathala, Mela Meierhans, Sawsan Darwaza, Mark Tompkins and Jon Balke. Jubran is the artistic director for Zamkana Association, which she also co-founded in October 2014 in Paris. Zamkana supports and accompanies original innovative artistic projects, supporting freedom of expression and secularism. Sodassi (Arabic for ‘sextet’, featuring Youmna Saba, Dina el Wedidi, Maya Khaldi, Ayed Fadel, Rasha Nahas and Sama’ Abdulhadi) is Zamkana's first artistic production starting in 2018. Terrae Incognitae is the new project to be supported by Zamkana, conceptualized and directed by Kamilya Jubran for 2023-2024.
http://www.kamilyajubran.com.
https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/the-wire-tapper/the-wire-tapper-54/10
https://www.youtube.com/user/kamilyajubran/
Werner Hasler a composer, trumpet player and electronic musician. Besides his long standing collaboration with Jubran, he has been working in various collaborations (with Hugo Ryser, Carlo Niederhauser, Vincent Courtois and many more) on hybrids of exhibition/installation and live performance. His most recent works including OUT (2016), OUT TOO (2018) and OUT THERE (2019) THREE SUNS (2022) are space filling, audio-visual installations including live sets with audio-surround. With his OUT Sessions he creates hexaphonic Audio Surround Soundbubbles with the cello player Carlo Niederhauser. Werner Hasler has performed with the Karl Berger, Jon Hassell, Sidsel Endresen Don Li. He also lectures on Electronics & Music at Hochschule der Künste in Bern.
http://www.wernerhasler.com.
https://vimeo.com/user24095025
Rim Irscheid is an ethnomusicologist, curator and textile artist working with hand embroidery, field recordings and found materials. Combining ethnographic research, curatorial practice and arts-based methods, her work looks at artist-led institution building, emotional aspects of creative labour and interpretations of care in curatorial activism. Some of her research-based articles and essays can be found in Sonic Matter, field notes Berlin and Norient. Her mixed media installations address sensory aspects of memory making and ambivalent feelings towards ‘home’ and have been exhibited at Cafe OTO, Modern Art Oxford and London Design Festival.
