The Attic launches The Sonic Turn, an interdisciplinary initiative that places sound at the center of understanding contemporary cultural and socio-political phenomena.
The project focuses on a growing paradigm shift in international research and public discourse: understanding and using sound as a tool for knowledge and critical reflection. This reorientation positions sound as a critical mode of investigation, a material force, and a site of power. Through debates, presentations, discussions, concerts, articles, and podcasts, The Sonic Turn opens a dialogue on the role that acoustic experiences play in shaping and deconstructing memory, identity, and the social body.
The series of events debuts November 1st at Control Club in Bucharest, with an evening of concerts featuring Praed (Lebanon/Switzerland), Yunis (Egypt), and Al.Ehtifal (Romania/Syria/Iran/India) — three international music projects oriented towards improvisation and experimentation, with a strong transcultural and political dimension.
The AL.Ehtifal Project is a musical ensemble that integrates spontaneous thoughts into performance moments, as a way of communication. It challenges the dominant musical landscape and established norms through authentic forms of artistic expression, born out of the need for experimentation. The project has a flexible body of musicians from Romania, Syria and Iran.
Praed is a band whose musical oeuvre can be described as a mixture of Arabic popular music, free jazz, and electronics.
The band’s body of work mainly explores the terrain of Arabic popular music (“Shaabi”) and its interconnectedness with other psychedelic and hypnotic musical genres in the world, such as free jazz, space jazz, and psychedelic rock among others. Since its inception, Praed has shown a very keen interest in this music as a medium that reflects Egyptian society’s complicated fabric.
Ninety Nine Eyes is the new live ritual set and album by Egyptian artist YUNIS, weaving Afro-Arab rhythms, trance structures, and electronic maximalism into a sonic pilgrimage. Structured like a Sufi Hadra, the performance invokes collective memory and transformation through layered sound design and live improvisation.
Rooted in Zar, takhmira, and ecstatic ceremony, this work offers not a genre — but a living ritual.
By opening up to a wider public while also engaging with academic research, The Sonic Turn aims to deepen the understanding of how we listen, stimulate critical reflection, and position Bucharest within the international circuit of debates on sound, memory, and identity in contemporary culture. Together, we ask: What does it mean to think with and through sound today – and how might the future look and sound, through this renewed attention to the subject?
By bringing together a diverse range of voices and perspectives, The Sonic Turn encourages interdisciplinary dialogue.
The Sonic Turn is a cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
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Tickets: 99 lei • Presale
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* Children ages 7 and under have free access with a parent holding a valid ticket. Protective headphones are recommended.
** Children up to 16 years old need a valid ticket and must be accompanied by a parent with a valid ticket.
*** Minors aged 16 to 18 years old have access with a valid ticket.
**** Serving and alcohol consumption are strictly forbidden for all minors.