Sunday 12 October 2025, 7.30pm
Please note that the show will begin at 8pm
Exploring time, space and unhealthy obsessions with authenticity and “untouchable sounds” in maqam-based music, Kareem Samara explores how sound, rhythm and harmony can be manipulated using amplified Oud with live and electronic percussion. His one-hour performance is separated in different sections that explore how Sultanah, a state of ecstasy and loss of self, can be achieved through sonic manipulation. The act of delaying, processing, and interacting with voices and speeches from ancestors across time, his soundscapes connect historical imaginations and research-based practices of Arab Futurism to create new narratives on traditional Arabic music.
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).
Kareem Samara is an improviser and composer from London. Combining the Oud and Arabic percussion with loopers and samplers, he creates a new dialogue between himself and technology, between traditions and the future. He pushes the limits of what is expected of an instrument weighed down by generations of expectation, exploring every inch of the Oud to create a modern soundworld; a soundworld where archival interviews and field recordings connect struggles and timelines, interweaving with melodies that strive to be free of borders. He has performed and collaborated with Nadah El Shazly, Ayman Asfour, Goat Girl, Ryan Harvey, Tom Morello, Tashi Dorji, Kinn, Matt Cargill, Fatima Laham and Bint Mbareh.
https://kareemsamara.bandcamp.com/
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.
Fatima Lahham is a musician and researcher based in London. She uses the recorder and her voice to tell stories alongside bees, poems and the sea. Fatima has performed all over the UK and Europe both as a soloist and with collaborators, and her first album 'bulbul' was released in 2022. Fatima is currently working on a creative research project about Muslim communities's experiences of music and health and often works as a musician in hospitals and healthcare settings.
L’Aubaine is a visual artist and VJ, exploring the interconnection between image, sound, and space. Using any surface as her canvas, from single and multi-screen set ups, projection mapping and immersive environments. She creates her own content in 2D, 3D, generative, hand-drawn, motion graphics, video and each performance is a unique creation, bringing the audience on a seamless visual journey. She performed in many set ups from underground raves, club nights to big festivals in UK and Europe, adding real-time and audio-reactive visuals to mainly electronic music but not only. She started collaborating with Kareem Samara at Crux festival in 2024.
www.laubaine.net
www.instagram.com/lo__ben
