Online: Liverpool Arab Arts Festival: Slow Listening

As part of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival’s Port Cities project, we introduce Slow Listening, an invitation to stop and tune in to the sounds of the cities around us.

The identity and culture of a Port City creates a distinctive sound. In Liverpool, the distant ships’ horns, seagulls and the sounds of the River Mersey create a backdrop to daily life in the city. Each port city has its own sound, which helps to provide insight to its character.

Listen to the sounds of Liverpool, Alexandria, Tripoli, Casablanca and Tunis from wherever you are. Whether you are in Liverpool or any of the other participating cities, or on the east coast of America, or the West coast of Africa, tune into the sounds of Port Cities to hear how it shapes their culture and identity.

Slow Listening will be available online from Friday 12 July via:

Spotify
TikTok
Instagram

Artists
Abdellah Hassak – Casablanca

Abdellah M. Hassak is a sound artist, DJ/music producer, and art director. He was born in Morocco / Casablanca. In 2014, his work had already pushed the boundaries of his practice, and he founded Mahattat Radio, where he conducted radiophonic and sound research in interdisciplinary projects with various communities. For 8 years, he participated as an artist, researcher, and radio producer.

Abdellah shapes sound as a material to create sound pieces, performances, acts, and installations. His creative process is often collaborative, involving communities. Currently, his research focuses on memory, which he uses as a creative process based on interaction. He is fascinated by the way humans inhabit their environment.

Listening is at the center of his practice, beyond sound, as a means of grasping the imperceptible or as a pretext for meeting others. His work draws attention to the beings around us. He is interested in the imaginary and the contemporary interpretation that can be made of it, in the dialogue between humans and the context – natural or urban – in which they live, and in what voices tell us beyond words.

Abdellah’s sound pieces have been broadcast on radios around the world, such as Radio Papesse, Hangar, OTO Sound Museum, Pratiques d’hospitalité, and African Crossroads. He has collaborated with many other institutions and cultural spaces in Morocco and abroad in radiophonic and sound practice, such as the 5th edition of the Marrakech Biennale, Le Musée Collectif, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Port25 – Raum für Gegenwartskunst, Mannheim FFT Düsseldorf, ÉSAD Grenoble, Sonic Matter, and Qanat Collective.

hassak.net

Abdulhafeed Albusefi – Tripoli

Ahmed Saleh is a musician, composer and sound artist born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. He has become one of the spearheads of the Electronic music scene in Egypt. (Press – Cairoscene Magazine – March 2015)

Saleh’s experience as a visual artist had a great impact on his music. He composed his first live solo set and made an appearance at the 100LIVE Festival in 2009. Saleh is a member and one of the founders of the acclaimed band Telepoetic, he composed the soundtracks for many films, contemporary dance shows and Theater.

In 2014 he was a part of Jazz Nomades project and performed at La Voix Est Libre Festival (France)

Saleh’s music have been featured on a number of radio shows in Poland, USA, Italy, Germany, France, UK and Egypt.

Currently Saleh is touring his new album “A Ten year walk to the shore”.

Mohammed Soussi – Tunis