day ticket: pre sales 8 € plus fee / box office 15 €, 10 € (reduced)
festival ticket: pre sales 15 € plus fee / box office 25 €
 

Line-up

• Ahmed Mounib – violin
• Abathar Kmash – oud
• Nino Stübinger – piano
• Wilbert Pepper – double bass
• Stefan Noelle - drums
   

Arabic Oud meets Argentinian Chacarera, flamenco guitar meets 9/8 rhythms, yearning chalumeau meets playfull frame drum.

In the middle: Three voices, seeking to express what is common to all humans: Dreams, longings, desires. To this aim the six musicians of Germany, Argentine and Syria connect Latinamerican rhythms with traditional Arabic or sefardic lyrics trying to outline differences and similarities in the different colours of musical storytelling.

His first solo album "Siete Cuerdas Tapatías" was released in Mexico 2015 presenting his pursuit to find
new musical sounds and possibilities within the contemporary Mexican guitar. The album received the
sponsorship of the Mexican Government.

His performance at the international Jalisco Jazz Festival 2016 sharing the stage in Teatro PALCCO with
John Beasley, Frost Ensemble, Toktli, Federico Sanchez, earn a nomination for ‘Best Jazz Concert Mexico 2016’ (Lunas del Auditorio Award). The Festival released a CD with highlights of the festival 2016, with the life track of Carlos Corona’s Song ‘Mezcal y Garoa’.

Three travelling musicians from Italy and Germany, stranded in Lisbon. Packed with Jazz, World Music and Musicology Studies they set out for new adventures, searching different perspectives, rhythms and melodies, broadening their horizons.

Their concerts are excursions to the most remote parts of Europe, Latin America and Africa. The travelogues get mixed up and so the music: Klezmer with Funk, Italian folklore with African rhythms, Chanson with Batucada. The three musicians sing in every language they find appropriate and transform the public into talented singing birds.

There's no compositions - just the instant Moment. And by Betz and Janke this moment is captured with highest sensitivity and virtuosity. Rhythms and sounds flow up and down. Instruments and melodies come and go. A Trance, a Phantasy...

Florin Betz is a pioneer on the Pantam (aka Handpan) and a Marimba-viruous.

Bodek Janke is one of the most important drummers in the worldmusic cosmos. He is regurlarly on tour with the big names of the Szene. In Yo-Yo-Ma's Ensemble he inaugurated the „Elbphilharmonie“ in Hamburg.
 

Japal is a new band based in Berlin."Japal" is a coined word combined "Japan" and "Palestine" which is their background.

The formation of the instruments are simple, however, they take in the elements of music from all over the world taking advantage of their background.

Line-up:

• Shingo Masuda: Qanun
• Noriko Okamoto: Kontrabass
• Romeo Natur: Perkussion

Undogmatic, open minded and playful, the band breaks the usual genre boundaries, following the tradition of developing their own vigorous style. A mixture of Funk / Socca / Ragga-Beats, coupled with West African percussion arrangements and wind instruments, inspired and influenced by Fela Kuti’s afrobeat and brass band of the Balkans.

Some songs are sung in Wolof, the native tongue of the Senegalese lead singer Abass Ndiaye, and tell about friendship, solidarity, search for knowledge, asks questions about his own roots and talk about dancing and celebrating the joy of life without having money.

Kurdophone originate from the true cultural melting pot of Vienna. Coming from Iran and Austria,
the young musicians bring together old Kurdish melodies and Western influences in their music.

As different as their musical cultures may be, the artists have set out in search of common ground and
have found what they werelooking for: ontraditional instruments such as the Iranian kamancheh or
the tanbur, a long necked string instrument, Kurdophone create their own original music involving
elements from jazz, classical music up to contemporary music.

L'Oud whispers reflect our contradictions as musicians when we try to make the sound of our music louder than the sound of war.

The project features compositions written by the Syrian Oud virtuoso Mohannad Nasser between Syria, Lebanon, and Spain and reflect Mohannad's journey while looking for relative safety.

The journey that started in Damascus and ended in Spain at The prestigious Berklee College of Music where Mohannad performed with the famous guitar virtuoso Al Di Meola.

Mohannad's Music is a unique mix of traditional Arabic and Oriental music blend together with Jazz, Brazilian and flamenco influence.

The album received the laboratory Art grant from Ettijahat Independent culture. And has been performing in several stages and festivals around the world.

Line-up:

• Mohannad Nasser – oud
• Rolf Zielke – piano
• Stephan Braun – cello
• Rainer Winch – drums
• Ayman Helal - violine

The imaginary compositions and the classic trio format provide plenty of space for improvisation and interaction while the traditional roles often shift: Klampanis‘ lyrical bass at times becomes melodic center piece, the flamenco guitar is integral part of the rhythm and Hiroshi extends his percussion setup with pitched instruments such as Kalimba and Handpan. The musicians live in Athens, Madrid and New York and just as diverse is their sound that is inspired by jazz, chamber music, flamenco and other Mediterranean influences.

 

The Berlin based trio OKO interprets Black Sea songs. Vocal polyphony and tradition confront modernity and global perspectives, questioning what brings us together and what tears us apart. The timeless ancestral call of three voices mash together with synths, violin, percussion, bass and electronic soundscapes. Each musician brings different elements panning music styles such as English freak folk, Georgian and Bulgarian choral music to progressive rock. Their recognisable sound emerges from years of soaking up the explosion of cultural and musical influences that are home to Berlin, the city in which they live and create.

With experimental voice-acrobatics, prepared piano and strings, her compositions fuse archaic traditions and contemporary visions to outstanding soundcapes.

Since 2007 she performes together with her sister Natalie Meipariani, violinist, and her partner Giga Khelaia, cellist, as Russudan Meipariani Ensemble: transforming archaic traditions and contemporary influences into an enchanting universe of sounds, their
concerts are an magic invitation for crossing borders- between Georgia and Germany, between musical genres; out of their roots into a sounding world of cultural diversityuntamed, wild and magic.

Spiced up by a synthesized retro sound, in his songs he effortlessly blends jazz with modern popular music, latin rhythms, soul music and even some elements of classical music.

„Through my music I want to universally express feelings and abstract ideas I cannot put in words. I want to touch the heart as well as the mind of the listener.“

Syriab Band performed concerts with Ensemble Reflektor, the orchestra of the National Higher Conservatory Lübeck, „Neues Kammerorchester Bremen“ and Trio d‘Iroise in Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck and Hannover. The musicians also conduct workshops. It is their vision to draw attention to oriental folklore, to spark interest, to inspire western musicians to improvise and try new approaches, and to spread the joy of music.
 

«Seven is Heaven» is originally a four hands piano piece built on a 7-count rhythm, inspired by a beat played with percussions during weddings and festive ceremonies in Morocco. Inspired by tradition, Myriam El Haïk, pianist and composer, uses processes of repetition, variation and layering of rhythmic and melodic patterns to constitute a piece that inscribes itself in a contemporary, minimalist and repetitive aesthetic but also in a peculiar genre of beat music open to other styles.

In 2018, when Myriam El Haïk met the trumpettist and composer Christoph Titz at the first Gnaoua Festival Berlin in WERKSTATT DER KULTUREN Christoph had the idea to remix the piece. He rearranged the seven is Heaven’s patterns among a different composition with an open instrumentation including, piano, trumpet, darbouka, electronic sounds …

The encounter of the two musicians gave to the original piece a new form that mixes a recorded electronic version with live acoustic performance creating a multicultural euphoric groove. For the Festival Creole, the duo El Haïk-Titz decided to invite Alaa Zouiten as a guest. The texture of the ‘oud and the talent of Alaa as musician and improviser should open «Seven is Heaven» to bright and colourful skies.

The music of Yazkah combines genres such as Afrobeat, electronic music, world music and jazz, with Afro-Cuban and different African styles.

Performing on stage, Yazkah uses a high variety of instruments, achieving their proposal: providing an experience full of pure energy, and together with the audience having fun with a great show.

The WERKSTATT DER KULTUREN is sponsored by the Senate Departement for Culture and Europe.