2020 08 15 • Al-Mayasān
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Opera North commissioned me, alongside Abel Selaocoe, Maya Youssef, Martin Green and Alice Zawadzki to create a new work as part of the BBC Arts and Arts Council England’s Culture in Quarantine programme. The work was to be created specifically to be listened to on headphones whilst walking, with a particular place or time in mind, offering the listener a unique chance to renew their imaginative connections with their environment.
Al-Mayasān is composed as a soundtrack to the “short film” the listener will experience whilst walking, featuring microtonal synths (in maqāmāt bayāt, rāst, huzām), free-improv Iraqi style flute (Maqām Al-Awj) and freakout percussions.
It is available for streaming and download via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Soundcloud.
Enjoy, and if you feel like it, please share your listening experience with me via this page.
Photograph © 2020 FaceTime photo shoot by Tim Dunk
© 2022 Khyam Allami