Rayess Bek is a leading artist in Lebanon. He has performed on stages around the world: Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, UAE, Qatar…), Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain…) and the United States. With over 200 concerts, he has revealed his talent through solo shows, festivals, in intimate as well as ornate spaces such as the Palais des Congrès in Paris, opening for Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes.
Despite a degree in mass communication and graphic design, music career began quite early. As a matter of fact, Wael is thankful for his interest in the arts to his father, an artist, who, at a young age, introduced him to drawing.
In 1997, he founded the group Aks’ser (literally: “One way street”; “No entry”; “The other way round”; “Against the grain”; “Against the Current”). Then, in 2002, he began a solo career under the name of Rayess Bek.
Rayess Bek, 31, divides his time between Paris and Beirut. His lyrics are sharp, critical, always engaged, reflecting his own experience of war and exile as well as the dreams and disillusions of his generation. His music is just like him. It subtly depicts an atypical and polymorphic world, at the crossroads of languages (French/Arabic) and instruments (including traditional ones like the oud and the nay. After successful collaborations with artists such as RZA, Amazigh Kateb and Ministère des Affaires Populaires (MAP), Rayess has surrounded himself with a new band, which focuses on electro acoustic music tones and has been working on new compositions and arrangements. The Rayess Bek Orchestra mixes traditional instruments like the oud (oriental luth) and nay (oriental flute) with bass, upright bass and groove box to form orchestral hip-hop in French and Arabic. It performs all over the world, in such places as Paris, Casablanca, Liverpool and Berlin.
Naïssam Jalal was born in Paris in 1984 from Syrian parents. At age 6 she entered the conservatory to study classical flute. At 17 she discovered improvisation and left the academy after her graduation ”CFEM”. She entered the funk band Tarace Bulba with whom she toured in Mali the same year.
At 19, Naïssam decided to leave France and go in search of her origins. she started in Syria. After spending several months studying the Nay in the Great Arab Music Institute in Damascus, she went to Cairo for three years. Over there she studied with the great master violinist Abdu Dagher and met Fathy Salama with whom she performed regularly in the most prestigious theaters. She participated in the creation of the group El Dor El Awal with whom she recorded two albums. She played with all kinds of musicians, all kinds of music and developed a very particular sound between East and West. In 2006 she recorded the album in Cairo Bakash with Miles Jay and Colter Frazier.
Since her return to France in 2006, she performed with the Lebanese rapper Rayess Bek France, Germany, Belgium, Lebanon and Morocco.
