Middle Eastern psych-rock collective Al-Qasar will perform for the first time in Romania – Thursday, May 29, at Control Club, Bucharest, as part of the 9th edition of DokStation — Music Documentary Film Festival.
Retro-futuristic Arab Psychedelia
Paris-based psych-rockers gather a punky outlaw army from the Middle East to the West Coast
Paris-based psych-rockers gather a punky outlaw army from the Middle East to the West Coast
Al-Qasar was started in the Barbès neighborhood of Paris in 2015 by US-French producer Thomas Attar Bellier. The musicians came together, from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the US. The core touring lineup of the project includes Turkish psychedelic rock singer Sibel, Iraqi-French drummer Adrien Al-Aiedy and French bassist Guillaume Theoden.
UNCOVERED (second album by the collective), tackles songs from the Western pop to the Arab folk repertoires. Cultures collide, and the result of this fission is Depeche Mode sung in Turkish, Sean Paul in Arabic, Nubian legend Hamza El Din with fuzz guitars and iconic Lebanese composer Wadih El Safi through space echo.
Produced between Tunis, Lisbon, Los Angeles, London, and Paris, UNCOVERED tells the story of a world in flux, its ancestors deep in the past but its eyes set on the zeitgeist. It’s retro-futurist Arab psychedelia with a foot in the Mojave and the other in the Sahara, also sounds like an explosive mix of Middle Eastern grooves, American heavy psychedelia and North African trance.
Al-Qasar’s music never wavers, pulling from the hypnotic roots of North African trance and threading it into a fabric with the elaborate beauty of Arab scales and the shock and thrill of rock’n’roll.
On Al-Qasar’s performances, bass, drums and percussion create an irresistible groove, while electric saz and guitars build a wailing wall above, with ecstatic Arabic vocals inspired by history as it strides into the future. Like a psychedelic celebration on the dancefloor, it bristles with the kind of deep energy that makes Al-Qasar sound like the world’s most dangerous wedding band.
In the past years, the band performed on 5 continents and at major festivals such as Pukkelpop, Lowlands, Sziget, Reeperbahn, and WOMADs and collaborated with rock’n’roll legends Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Jello Biafra (DeadKennedys).
Join them on their world tour as they bring their vision of social justice and cultural diversity to the stage.
Join them on their world tour as they bring their vision of social justice and cultural diversity to the stage.