Last week Remix Asia 2009, held their fifth annual music platform at al-Genina theater, where the music transported the audience to a different time and space “Allow me to welcome you to a spiritual trip through time and space, you will be taken to places you have never been before, you will listen to very special music, that's for sure.” This is how Bassma el-Husseiny, director of the Cultural Resource Foundation introduced the participants on stage. More than 15 artists with different instruments enter the stage with vibrant steps. Among them are three oud players, a saxophonist, a qanoun player, a nay player, several percussionists, two violinists and three vocalists. After a short moment of preparation, they begin playing “Sabaa” or Seven. As the simple and joyful Oriental rhythms fill the air, the audience begins to enjoy their spiritual journey. Hani Bedair skillfully plans an instrument called the udu drum, accompanied by the traditional tabla and duff in an easily understood percussion mix. Syrian Moslem Rahal creates a sad yet pleasurable sound on the ney, particularly when played with the oud and Syrian Bassel Rojoub's saxophone in the background. These tunes capture multiple cultures and allow one's mind to drift amidst the crowded alleys of Egypt, yet feel the cool breeze of the Syrian and Lebanese mountains and even glimpse the palace of One Thousand and One Nights twinkling in the Baghdad night. The Remix project is an annual project organized by the Cultural Resource Foundation, which aims to foster dialogue between musicians from Arab countries and developing countries, with other musicians from around the world. By experimenting with new musical styles and both Western and Oriental backgrounds, the resulting concerts are the result of workshops held over several days by renowned Arabic musicians and composers. Last year's Remix was part of the jazz factory festival and fused jazz with Oriental music. This year the theme was clearly different. Although Charbel Rohana led the team last year with Egyptian musician Fathy Salama and Lebanese Tawfik Farouk, this year, the leaders, Alim Kasimov and the Iraqi oud player Khalid Mohamed Ali chose an Oriental, spiritual and Sufi direction focusing on Oriental instruments with the exception of the saxophone. “This encounter is very productive on the human, professional and artistic levels,” explained Charbel Rohana who has visited Egypt several times but never given a concert with his entire band. “People gather, talk, listen, suggest, and at the end they come up with something they never even expected. That's why I like to call the workshop the musical kitchen, because we usually start with a piece that is not complete and by the end of the day, we not only get a complete song, but a piece containing each and everyone's print on it. That is what the project is all about” he added. The performance included four other tracks that varied from traditional Tunisian Sufi music and traditional Azeri music to Lebanese and Syrian music. The prominent Lebanese composer and singer Charbel Rohana makes his entrance with “Um al-Maradem” a song about the Lebanese crisis in June 2006. The traditional oud played on new musical scales demonstrates the difference in Rohana's music and quickly catches the attention of the audience, especially when he sings “Bel Arabi”, an ironic song that addresses the vanishing of the Arab language, to the detriment of foreign languages. The mood changes suddenly when Alim Qasimov enters the stage accompanied by two Azeri players and his daughter Fargana Qasimov in colorful Azeri clothing. This traditional Azeri singer known worldwide for his Mugham singing begins with two songs from his repertoire of Azeri, Persian and Arabic poems accompanied by the kamancha (similar to the violin) and the tar (traditional Azeri string instrument) playing in the background. The unfamiliar public can only imagine Azerbaijan and the places this music comes from. For the final two tracks, the musicians from across the Arab and Central Asian countries join together and merge their musical traditions into a surprising, yet pleasant result called “Chesma Shikaste” or “Marmar Zamani”, a song of both Shami and Azeri heritage. Remix Asia 2009 is a truly remarkable trip. The group of young artists participating in the project seems unified, with no boundaries of language or communication. Narguis the Tunisian, who teaches music and sings in a jazz band, thinks the Remix project is a good opportunity to do something that has never been tried before. It is exciting “when one discovers the ability do something totally different than what he is used to doing,” she explains with a smile. “It is funny because with my other Tunisian colleague, we presented a song from our Tunisian Sufi music, and we discovered that it is very similar to Shami Sufi music. That is the real purpose of such a gathering, to help us discover how we are similar and how small the world is. When we unite, the differences between us become negligible,” she adds. For Bassel el-Rojoub, who came from Syria specifically to play with Alim Qassimov, the Remix project is a very important gathering that has surprising effects, because no one knows what will happen in the end. “I am a very special case, because this year's direction is Oriental spiritual music, and introducing a saxophone in this ambiance changes it. I learned to play Oriental tunes with my sax, and I consider it a great opportunity because I rarely have time to play other musical styles, explained el-Rojoub. Khalid Yassim, a percussionist from Lebanon who participated in the first Remix project in 2005 has another opinion. “Remix is an important gathering that helps us communicate with other musicians from our age. We can communicate our thoughts, perceptions and interests. But I think the workshop was quite short and more concerned with the final concert that we will perform this year. I prefer learning rather than playing in front of a public who mostly does not know us as musicians,” he stated. The band, as they could be called after working together for a short period, performed two successful concerts in al-Genina Theater, and gathered a young crowd, which is unusual for Oriental tunes. Such a mixture demonstrated that music can be a language to unite people from across the world with harmony and joy. “This marriage of instruments and tunes makes me think of composing music that contains new styles,” concluded Khaled Mohamed Ali.
