For the second year in a row, Red Bull Music are pushing the boundaries of electronic music in Egypt by sending off four cutting-edge producers to four different governorates across the country to collaborate with local artists of traditional background, with the aim of leaving their comfort zones and developing a new sound. The Red Bull Music Jamhoureya project will culminate on the 30th of November at a private concert where each of the artists will bring musicians from these governorates to join them live on stage. Watch below the docuseries, produced by MO4 Network, to see how the artists fared in their new environments.
Chiati comes from a rock music background, previously the guitarist for Bandetta, before taking up electronic production and moving to Berlin where he crafted his sound - a salaciously groovy mix of house, funk and jazz performed live. Chiati travelled to Suez and Port Said to jam with local musicians, carriers of the traditional sea-faring songs.
Aya Metwalli has somewhat of a cult following online, coming into prominence with an eclectic mix of melancholic Arabic acoustic guitar tracks, before releasing her debut EP Beitak in 2017 which saw the vocalist delve into production, showcasing a haunting experimental sound inspired by everything from post-punk and dark wave to trip hop. Metwalli headed south to sample the sounds of Bedouin musicians in the mountains of Sinai.
Ismael's journeyed story begins as one part of electro duo Wetrobots with last year's participant Hussein Sherbini, before touring with Egyptian dance music collective KIK, spreading his wrought, hard-hitting productions across Europe. His recent solo releases shift between industrial noise music and compelling techno. The contrasting tranquility of Aswan was the setting for Ismael's collaboration with local Nubian musicians.
The Meteors Project, made up of Gaser El Safty and Karim El Zanfally, originally came together through guitar jams, which quickly turned into a couple of spacey EPs inspired by everything from early prog-rock and trip hop to amalgamations of neo-classical and techno. Their newer sound is now born of and for club dance-floors, an interesting contradiction to the sound of Assiut, where TMP jammed with mizmar and tabla players in the tranquil farmlands.
