a rough and raw board recording featuring three sketches of new material in a oud + computer live set

(some vocal samples respectfully resampled from other works.)

Live @ Beit Zatoun One-Year Anniversary

idea in 10 (may-june 2021)

Karim uses the wonders of technology to collaborate with a younger/livelier version of the singer that some actor once called the "Sultan of Tarab"

George Wassouf - "Terghalle Ya Terghalle" (K's very rough remix)

I presented two sets at the Shubbak Festival in London, this is the first of the two.

This set consists of original material for computer and oud, some never recorded or performed before, all 'performed' live. This recording is about 75% of the set – the first 10-15 minutes did not record unfortunately. The unrecorded segment consisted of a partially improvised sound piece "Sleep Commute/ The Long Journey Home of Ibn Battuta".

The tracklisting is as follows:
00:00 - Airflow/ Sketch for a Film
02:48 - Untitled (for Oud and Computer)
10:46 - Sprawl
20:03 - Untitled (Choubi)
27:40 - Circle in Maqam Rast
33:33 - Finally Awake

The set was accompanied by a video piece, "in transit selection 001_dubai/abu dhabi (for london)"
https://youtu.be/MMLVzMihs7g

Karim Sultan - Live At Shubbak Festival, London UK (25 July 2015)

following the "in progress/in transit mix", here is another short mix of original material largely modelled after the (unrecorded) set I performed on the main stage at the Shubbak festival in London earlier in July. this mix deviates in that it ends on a different track, with the intention of continuing with other short mixes of original material.

these tracks date from 2012-2015, and the mix was recorded live in Dubai (at home studio) from the computer through an analog mixer. the overall sound is somewhat saturated and cloudy, and the track selection employs pieces that feature energetic rhythms that reside within contemplative, evolving, circular atmospheres.

0:00 - intro
0:21 - gate
5:17 - panther/alley
7:59 - untitled (airport sketch)
11:11 - untitled (angular sketch)
13:49 - untitled (cloudy sketch)
16:14 - outro

Karim Sultan - Short Mix Of Original Material #2

aerial view (in maqam bayati for electric oud)

fragment 2 (oud & synthesizer / doum doum tek tek es doum tek es)

performed live at the Something Else, Off Cairo Biennial (Cairo, Egypt)
on Friday, 4 December 2015
on the rooftop of Darb 1718 in Fustat/Old Cairo
with computer, controllers, and electric oud.

tracklisting:
00:00 - Untitled (Intro)
07:10 - Sleep Commute (The Long Journey Home of Ibn Battuta)
11:11 - Airflow/ Sketch for a Film
15:04 - Sprawl
25:40 - Choubi (for Samples and Synthesizer)
34:48 - Circle in Maqam Rast
41:45 - Abjad
43:21 - Jurjina 
49:22 - Memory Doppler/ Rast Cluster (Version 2)
53:35 - Divided By
1:01:10 - Sketch for Four Voices and Sine Waves

Karim Sultan - Live In Cairo @ Something Else (4 December 2015)

roundabout way (version 1)

I was supposed to give a talk at Alserkal Avenue in January 2017.

Instead, I played this improvised set on oud, guitar, and computer.

Improvisations on Oud and Guitar (Live at Nadi Al Quoz, Alserkal Avenue)

Improvisations on oud, guitar, and computer

Originally produced while waiting for a long time in a hotel lobby in 2013. Finished at my apartment later that evening.

Reworked in my home studio in Sharjah in February 2018.

city light (2013) [2018 retouch]

Track listing:
1. Course Correction
2. Atop an Underlying Structure
3. Circling Fragments
4. Unfamiliar Trajectory
5. Sure Thing (2018 Rework)
6. Passing Landscape
7. Look Up and the Sun Will Answer You (Extended Version)
8. Remembrance for the Horizon
9. All the Reeds Rattle
10. Terrestrial Descent (Slow Version)
11. Different Air (Re-recorded Fragment)
12. Roundabout Way

gazele music

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