Sonic Pluriverse Festival: Siti Muharam, Aziza Brahim, Wahid Paradis

Her music powerfully and nuancedly combines different musical cultures, including West African, Iberian, Mediterranean and Afro-Cuban elements. Based on her Sahrawi heritage, she often incorporates the hypnotic sounds of the haul - singing accompanied by tabal rhythms - into her compositions that express her culture and identity. As a songwriter, singer and instrumentalist, Brahim is a prominent spokesperson for the Sahrawi people and their ongoing struggle for recognition and justice.

Her fifth studio album, Mawja (2023), draws deep on her roots. "Mawja was the word my grandparents used when they turned on the old portable radio we had in the house," Brahim says. Her music is a journey through origins, memories, displacement, injustices and resistance, enlivened by poetry and melody.

Siti Muharam carries on the musical legacy of her great-grandmother, the renowned taarab virtuoso Siti binti Saad. An icon in a male-dominated era, Saad was the first female artist from East Africa to make commercial recordings in 1920. Over a century later, her great-granddaughter honors and preserves this legacy.

With unwavering passion, Siti Muharam breathes new life into the taarab genre. In her album Siti of Unguja (2023), she references her great-grandmother's era by incorporating the percussive kidumbak style and breaking down the traditional structure of the taarab to evoke the eclectic essence of Zanzibar's Swahili street culture, which greatly influenced Saad.

Kidumbak is characterized by a mixture of Swahili poetry, Quranic verses, African polyrhythms, and Indian and European influences. With its rhythmic complexity and melodic depth, this versatile genre remains relevant and constantly evolving.

Wahid Paradis' extensive vinyl collection, excellent taste in music and virtuosity as a DJ create a captivating atmosphere that delights the audience from start to finish. In his sets, he effortlessly combines the opulence of the golden age of Arabic music with the synthesizer sounds of Italo Disco, Funk and other genres - an invitation to collective listening, empathy and spontaneous dancing.

19:00 Siti Muharam (Concert)

20:30 Aziza Brahim (Concert)

22:00 Wahid Paradis (DJ Set)