Blog
Everything we do includes some element of collaboration, this includes all the activities under the ‘Projects’ topic. Everything in the ‘Communities’ header is work organised by the communities, individuals and organisations we work with, sometimes we’ve played a small role, and sometimes we’re just there for a day out.
There will usually be links to their web pages and social media, please support and follow them.
Posts
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Gigs: Autumn 2019
Festival of Hope 20th September, Tunbridge Wells. Heading toward winter with some warm gig memories… 30th September at The Forum in Tunbridge Wells, saw the 3rd annual Festival of Hope, organised by Tunbridge Wells Welcomes Refugees. We went with Bashir Al Gamar and the Sussex Syrian Trio (Jamal, Alaa and Zahi) The atmosphere was electric,…
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Maté Café: September 1st 2019
Our first Maté Café since the break for summer, in the newly refurbished Cowley Club. As always there was Maté tea and delicious Syrian. Todays menu included rice with vermicelli and roasted almonds, served with slow roasted vegetable tajine. After lunch there was some live music from Jamal and Jenny, it was nice to see…
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Recording:Polina Shepherd, Lorin Sklamberg & The Brighton & Hove & London Russian & Yiddish Choirs
On the last weekend of August 2019, we were lucky enough to be invited to record this fantastic project with Polina Shepherd, Lorin Sklamberg and the four Brighton and London choirs that Polina runs. With over 50 people involved, it was the biggest recording session we’ve been involved in so far. Below is Polina’s article…
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Solas Festival 2019
As part of our ongoing work with the British Library, we were kindly invited to Solas Festival 2019 to meet and record some of the musicians involved in the event. An annual occasion in the village of Errol, Perthshire, its a fantastic event, best described by the festival website: “Solas Festival – Scotland’s midsummer festival…
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Eid Party: June 2019
A collaborative event with the team from Maté Café, the Alnoure Academy to celebrate Eid. There was face painting, Syrian and Arabic food, a Candy Floss machine, home made sweets and snacks, jewellery stalls and a fantastic childrens music workshop run by Music Bus Brighton and Hove. The event was well attended with people traveling…
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Maté Café: May 26th 2019
The May Maté Café, along side the usual delicious Syrian food and Maté Tea, had a new feature; the first of an ongoing series of workshops run by Dr Laila Kadiwal and Alessandra Bavestrelli exploring the interconnections between cultures around the World. This session followed the journey of numbers from Indic and Arabic scholars to…
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Ipswich Sessions
Ipswich has a vibrant music scene and it was great to be invited to visit and see some of it as part of our work with the British Library. On a trip organised by Ipswich Community Media, I visited in February 2019 to record musicians in the town. This project was only possible because of…
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Maté Café: February 3rd. 2019
The first Maté Café of 2019, and some great unplanned music fusions…Including a colab with Saxophonist Django, who just popped in on his way to a band rehearsal and ended up joining in. As usual delicious Syrian food courtesy of the team. Big thanks to everyone involved, including musicians: Kourosh, Jamal, Mo, Django, Tom, James…
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Winter Warmer 2018
Our annual Winter Warmer community fundraiser concert. With support from Mate Cafe, Refugee Radio and of course all the musicians involved. Live music on the night was by Bashir Al Gamar kourosh kouchakpour Bright-Hun Voices Hungarian Chamber Choir Sussex Syrian All Stars The concert raised money for local community projects Mate Cafe & Bright…