Palestinian Hip Hop and A Key To Return

Listening to DAM; Milliardat ‘Millions of dollars are spent to keep us separated

Recently been working on an original score and sound design for the compelling ‘Key to Return’, Norma Cohens stunning new play exploring daily life under the Palestinian regime.

What an honour to be working with this stellar Arabic cast of Palestinian, Syrian, Sudanese, Moroccan and Egyptian heritages. We devised a large part of the music in situ with my wonderful musicians Saied Silbak (Oud) and Elizabeth Nott. (percussions), with me on guitars, FX, Keys and foley.

As lead musical supervisor, I had the absolute joy of immersing myself in 50 years of Palestinian music and becoming a huge fan. There’s this uniquely Palestinian concept called ‘Sumud’, which roughly translated, means ‘The will to resist’, and you feel it EVERYWHERE in the music.The sheer range of expression across all the genres – I can’t even explain, but listen to this gorgeousness by Sabreen and feel all the feels

Then get your stomp on to this breathtaking Hip Hop banger by DAM

Premiering at the P21 gallery, (worth a visit for the Palestinian Pastries alone!), this is a fantastically thought provoking piece. Lovely review here: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220211-key-to-return-a-provocative-look-at-the-lives-of-palestinians-living-under-occupation/