On May 29, at the the Painted Bride Art Cente in Philadelphia, two Syrian-born artists, Ayman Alalao and Kinan Abou-afach, will be part of a “non-linear storytelling” performance, which involves linking music and visuals to illustrate themes of Arab history and heritage.
Here is a preview:
Kinan Abou-afach has been involved in other collaborations between musicians and visual artists, such as Roads from Damascus, where he collaborated with Kevork Mourad. Similarly, Syrian clarinet player Kinan Azmeh worked with Kevork Mourad on the Gilgamesh project.
For more on this latest collaboration:
Kinan Abou-afach and Ayman Alalao present a performance of digitally created visuals with live and pre-recorded music. The performance takes the audience through non-linear storytelling where sounds generate visual patterns and illustrations are created live on stage. Performed with musicians Kinan Abou-afach on cello, Hanna Khoury on violin, Hicham Chami on qanun, and Hafez Kotain on percussion, this collaborative work touches on themes of Arab heritage, history, and politics. Live projections generated by audio recognition technology that interprets each instrument separately will create a dynamic visual and musical narrative.
Arab Hyphen 