Kamilya Jubran, born 1963 in Aka, spent her childhood years in the Palestinian village of Al-Rameh. At a very young age, she began studying traditional Arabic poetry and music with her father Elias Jubran, a master craftsman of authentic musical instruments. She was singing the classical Egyptian repertoire between the ages of 4 and 10, accompanying herself on the "kanun", but until she was 15, her musical gifts were solely for home enjoyment. In 1981, she moved to Jerusalem/Al Kods, where she joined Said Murad, a composer who founded the world-famous Palestinian music group Sabreen. She performed with this group for twenty years as the lead singer, mastering many different Eastern instruments, co-producing four albums, travelling all over the Arab world, in Europe, the USA and Japan, and, at the same time, co-founding the Association for Artistic Development. During this time, Kamilya Jubran shifted toward a new style and started her intensive search for new approaches towards modern Arabic poetry. A retreat to Paris proved helpful. A crucial step toward developing a new expressive, modern, and unique sound happened last year when Kamilya Jubran merged the alternative worlds of several musical dimensions with European instruments and electronics, including video, in a project called Mahattaat. Two versatile Swiss artists, who will be appearing with her in Ljubljana, as well as the French double-bass player Sarah Murcia, contributed to the project. The project has received essential support from the foundations ProHelvetia and Kultur und Entwicklung, which allowed the show to tour, appear at festivals and develop even further. Jubran says her recent work "at the stations" isn't just a simple "encounter of East and West", but rather a "confrontation of diverse cultures": European electrophonics, traditional Arabic sound, the modern poetry of the Middle East, video-art, jazz, etc. Intercultural tensions always give rise to something new, an unexpected understanding, a special calm, where one should not forget the old paradox that the most beautiful creative results often originate in war and other forms of repression. Mahattaat actually came into being because of the expressed wish of Sandro Lunin, the director of Schlachthausin Bern and organiser of the Ja'Salam festival, in the spring of 2002, when Kamilya Jubran visited Switzerland as a resident artist.
Werner Hasler (born 1969) plays jazz trumpet and is the leader of the band Manufactur; their intriguing tapes in the field of electro-acoustic research are available through the Zürich distributor RecRec. Although he has had a lot of experience in collaborating with Japanese sound designers and dance performances, collaboration with Kamilya-they also perform as a duo-has been a completely new and precious experience in harmony. His younger colleague Michael Spahr, a.k.a. Rhaps (born 1973), is both an artist and a scientist. For a long time he lived in Amsterdam, where he worked as a historian and video-artist. Three years ago he returned to his native Switzerland, perfected his skills as a VJ, and today works as a freelance historian, produces documentaries, and directs short films. Spahr hones his VJ skills in the V.I.T. collective (Mouthwatering Cast, Manufactur).
Miha Zadnikar
