Irtijal 2011 – Day 1

Initiated in 2001, Irtijal is so far the only festival in Lebanon devoted to experimental music, free jazz, free improvisation, contemporary and other new and innovative forms of music making.

– Dans les Arbres (DE / FR) :
° Xavier Charles : clarinet
° Ivar Grydeland : guitar, banjo
° Christian Wallumrød : piano
° Ingar Zach : percussion
This quartet stems from work that Ivar Grydeland and Ingar Zach began in duo toward the end of the twentieth century. Grydeland and Zach established the label SOFA, performed as a duo and started several ensembles in which the two worked with musicians from the European improvised music scene.

– Charbel Haber & Radwan G. Moumneh
° Charbel Haber : electric guitar
Active member of the Lebanese free improvisation scene and part of MILL (Musique Improvisee Libre au Liban) association since 2002 Member and co-founder of free improvisation group BAO trio, and the XEFM collective. Haber’s work extends to the world of film and video art, as a solo artist, and with Scrambled Eggs, composing the soundtracks of films and collaborating with video artists such as Lamia Joreige and Akram Zaatari.
° Radwan Moumneh : synthesizer, buzuk
Moumneh is a man of many talents, producing for the likes of A Silver Mt Zion, Clues and Eric Chenaux, performing under the name Jerusalem In My Heart, and of course holding the fort at Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango, a renowned 24-track analogue studio situated in Montréal, Québec.

– “In-Version” – The Joelle Khoury Quintet
° Hratch Kassis : soprano & tenor sax
° Tom Hornig : baritone & tenor sax
° Joelle Khoury : piano
° Maurice Khoury : bass
° Walid Tawil : drums
Born in Beirut, Joelle Khoury studied Music at Northern Virginia Community College and George Mason University, USA, where she attended Jazz workshops with Maria Rodriguez, Lawrence Wheatley, Wade Beach, Keeter Betts and Webster Young, among others.
Joelle is currently a Piano teacher at the USEK University and the National Conservatory (Lebanon), and has been performing in Lebanon with various bands since 1986. She founded the Beirut Jazz Ensemble in 1995.

Special Feature:Ticket Price (per night): 15.000 LL
Festival Pass (4 days): 40.000 LL