MEET THE ARTISTS : FIRST HALAQAT MUSIC RESIDENCY

Five musicians from Europe and the Arab world met in Anderlecht (Brussels) in December 2021 to make music and create together under the direction of Christophe Albertijn. They took part in the first Halaqat music residency organised in collaboration with Werkplaats Walter, the Amman Jazz Festival and Bozar.

 - Elyse Tabet
Elyse is a Lebanese audiovisual artist and electronic musician. She works with recorded and synthesized sound to create electro-acoustic landscapes and deconstructed rhythmics, drawing her inspiration from musique concrète, ambient, industrial electronica, dub and garage beats. Elyse began working in the field of audiovisual interaction in the early 2000s, mainly as a videographer for live performances and DJ sets. She has just released a new EP, Low Toms Bright Bells and Darkest Spells with Beirut based musicians Yara Asmar and Pascal Semerdjian. Elyse is a co-founder of the Beirut Synthesizer Center.

     -Mattias de Craene  
Mattias is a young saxophonist and composer and is active as bandleader with bands such as Nordmann, MDCIII and his soloproject.  
Beside that he’s also recently active with Dijf Sanders & Sylvie Kreusch. 

     -Yara Asmar 
Yara is a musician and puppeteer based in Beirut. Her debut album 'Home Recordings 2018-2021' which consists of tape recordings of improvisations for metallophone, accordion, music boxes and piano was released on Hivemind Records in September 2022. 

     -Soet Kempeneer
Soet started playing double bass at the age of 16 and studied Double bass at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen with Nathan Wouters, Nic Thys, Bo Van Der Werf and Bert Cools and previously at the Koninklijk Conservatoire Den Haag with Janos Bruneel. During these years and after Soet had the good fortune to perform with fellow and foreign musicians on several occasions. Currently Soet is active in a few groups like Joao Lobo Simorgh, Woolvs, Samuel Ber’s Reservoir Ghosts, Soet Kempeneer Trio ft. Magik Malik, Gaidaa, several loose, enjoyable formations and is exploring an electronic based world on his own. 

     -Amine Dhouibi
Amine is an independent musician. He was born in Tunisia (Sousse) on 17 October 1990. Guitar player and composer, he is sailing inside the world trying to discover a new place with special perspective and color in the universe of modern jazz music.  
His first album, " The Resurrection ", was nominated for the best newcomer in jazz 2021. He is in the process of releasing his second album "Namaste" in 2023.