‘Joss Turnbull’ at IRTIJAL ’15

Founded in 2000, Irtijal is presently the oldest music festival of the city of Beirut, and one of the longest standing international festivals of post-war Lebanon. Irtijal is organized by MILL, a non-profit association founded in 2000 by musicians Mazen Kerbaj and Sharif Sehnaoui, with the intent of promoting contemporary and experimental practices in music, and assisting projects that do not fit within the Lebanese mainstream, yet still present undeniable artistic value.

Hailing from Mannheim, Germany, Joss Turnbull started learning Latin and Middle Eastern hand-drums at the age of 12. Between 2007 and 2012 he travelled to countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Iran on a regular basis, to learn more about the riqq and daff. In 2011 he studied Turkish folk and classical music at the Conservatory of Teknik Üniversitesi in Istanbul, where he became acquainted with the Iranian goblet drum, or tombak, an instrument which is now at the center of his artistic practice.

Turnbull has collaborated over the years with various musicians, including Mustafa Said and the Asil Ensemble for Arabic classical and contemporary music, Mahmoud Turkmani, and Tarek Atoui. His sound ranges from minimalistic musical explorations of one instrument through fingers, palms, fingernails, sticks, tuning forks, brushes and rubber to more extreme and raw soundscapes, supplemented by electronics. He is able to bring together improvisation, electronics, contemporary classical music and oriental music and sounds, in an original and wholly convincing manner.

Free Entrance

For more information
76.952.387