Project Overview

ELECTROSTEEN is an initiative to bring Palestinian traditional music, in its widest sense, into the contemporary international art/musical scene.

Our Plan

Over the course of a 2- week residency, a team of carefully selected Palestinian electronic musicians were asked to work on the production of original tracks, using Al-Fonun Cultural Center's folkloric database as a starting point.

This audio material, either collected from existing archives or recorded from professional and nonprofessional urban, rural and Bedouin musicians, will represent an important database to produce new music.

International electronic music producers will be also invited to join the team and collaborate with the local artists.

A local filmmaker will visually document the whole process and will continuously follow our researchers, technicians.

All the produced tracks, along with a documentary film will be assembled in a unique CD/DVD box to be distributed in Palestine and all over the world.

ELECTROSTEEN is also planned to become a musical/video live show to take place in several major international cities, to share the experience of Palestine, the Palestine of colors, sounds, and creation!

What are we doing and why?

ELECTROSTEEN aims to present an alternative vision of Palestine, one nurtured through the eyes of its most compelling contemporary musical producers.  For the last half-century and longer, Palestine has been viewed almost exclusively -both regionally and internationally- through the camera lens of war, occupation, in-fighting, and humanitarian strife. Through this innovative program of musical creation, ELECTROSTEEN aims to challenge that over-determined, over-politicized image, and to shed a spotlight on Palestine's cultural vitality and relevance in the contemporary world.

At the international level, it is needless to say how much of the already long history of rave culture fascinates techno enthusiasts all around the world. Much has been written filmed and recorded about the birth of underground movements in all corners of the world, including Detroit, Berlin, and the UK. Through electronic music, those places saw the birth of artistic communities with many grievances and political messages, that left a deep and long-lasting cultural and social mark.

Last words

Today, history is being written in Palestine, where a similar birth just happened. A young, new generation of musicians and DJ’s provides Palestine's youth with a new face to which they can identify.

Our objective for  ELECTROSTEEN is to give Palestinian traditional music a second life, by proposing them in a contemporary musical language and exposing them to a wide local and international audience.

By betting on electronic music's universality and its political value, ELECTROSTEEN might very well play an important part in the struggle for a free and respected Palestine.

TEAM

MUSICIANS

- SAMA- Paris - SoundCloud

- JULMUD - Ramallah - SoundCloud

- AL NATHER - Ramallah - SoundCloud

- MUQATAA- Ramallah - SoundCloud

- SAROUNA.M - Jerusalem - SoundCloud

- Zenobia - Haifa - SoundCloud

- Bruno Cruz (Ministry of Dub-key) - Haifa  - SoundCloud

-Walaa Sbait (47 Soul)- London - SoundCloud

-  speed caravan - France - SoundCloud

- Basel Naouri (Jordan)

Organizers

Rashid Abdelhamid, is a Palestinian architect/designer and producer. In early 2013, he founded Made in Palestine Project, an independent arts initiative to create and promote contemporary visual art with a focus on Palestine. Rashid produced and acted in the short film Condom Lead, which made the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival (first time ever a Palestinian short film was selected in this category). In 2015, Made in Palestine Project’s first feature film Dégradé was selected at “La Semaine de la Critique” at the Cannes Film Festival. Rashid is currently working on several cultural projects that aims to promote film, art, and culture in Palestine.

-     SAMA ABDULHADI (AWYAV)

An emblematic artist of the Palestinian underground scene, SAMA’ (previously named Skywalker) is the first Palestinian DJ and electronic music producer. She started mixing in 2006 in parties around Ramallah, Palestine and started producing her own music and expanding her interest in synthesis in 2010, with a focus on Electronic Music, more specifically Techno, House, and other deeper sub-genres. Her sound: a powerful punchy techno, dry and musical all at once, with a very unique twist of her own In 2011, she moved to the UK to acquire a Bachelor of Science in Audio Engineering and Music Production from S.A.E. London, further improving her technical skills. Soon after, she released two albums as Skywalker, " Life's Pace " a debut EP with Itchycoo Records, and " Quantum Morphosis ", a self-released independent triptych (available on iTunes and all major platforms). She then started her career in Cairo in 2013 as an Audio Engineer, Music Producer, Audio Trainer, and Sound Designer for films. In 2016, Sama partnered with Eka3 to start a publishing agency of its first kind called Awyav, which represents independent artists from all over the Arab world. In 2017, as she was about to settle in Paris, SAMA’ decided to change her artist name from Skywalker to SAMA’ her first name, meaning Sky in Arabic. Since April 2017, as she was selected as a Laureate by the French Institute, SAMA’ is attending a six months residency at the International City of Arts in Paris, during which she will work on her next album and develop a new live show.

We would be honored to include you in our amazing team, as a supporter or producer and celebrate all together with our Palestine, the Palestine of colors, sounds, and creation!

This campaign is a BuildPalestine campaign, BuildPalestine is a platform to connect supporters around the world with trusted projects in Palestine through  crowdfunding campaigns and crowdsolving challenges.