Neam and Alaa met in the summer of 2025 and found themselves instinctively discussing questions of format: band or ensemble, piece or track, seated or standing audience. From these playful challenges emerged a meeting point between two very different musical worlds. The sound of the project stems from Neam’s classical heritage and her personal identity, interwoven with Alaa’s purely electronic equipment and his experimental approach. Both artists share a deep inspiration drawn from the musical landscapes of North Africa and South Asia – rhythms, keys and songs that resonate in their work, not as a fusion, but as a living canon.
Neam Tarek is a Cairo-born harpist and performance artist. She studied harp at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre. In her artistic work, she combines classical harp, electronics and political narration. She also develops interdisciplinary formats that explore questions of identity, belonging and social reality, whilst simultaneously pushing the boundaries of musical performance formats. Alongside her artistic practice, she is the founder and artistic director of Forte e.V., an association for alternative opera, music and the performing arts in Leipzig. From September 2026, she will commence the Master’s programme in Contemporary Music Performance & World Jazz at Berklee College of Music.
Aladin, whose roots lie in Palestine and the SWANA region, is a DJ and sound collector. His sets are based on an extensive archive of cassettes, CDs and vinyl records. His musical journey began in Palestine – shaped by traditional rhythms, collective resistance and the unifying power of sound that transcends borders. Influenced by the electronic music scenes of Haifa and Ramallah, his path led him to Germany in 2010. He co-founded Balout Krew قيرف طولبلا and has performed at major festivals such as Fusion and Nation of Gondwana, as well as on international stages such as the Cairo Jazz Club, where he shared the stage with artists such as Acid Arab. In recent years, his passion for synthesizers and analogue sounds has opened a new chapter – he creates original soundscapes and releases on labels such as Multiculti, Arabs Do It Better and, soon, YukU (Prague).