Around the Congress > Concert Nass Makan

NASS MAKAN

Nass Makan (the people of Makan, the people of a place) is the name of a constantly evolving musical project, the result of the meeting of several cultures and musical aesthetics. Launched in 2007, this project takes shape during residencies at the Egyptian Center for Culture and Arts (ECCA-Makan, Cairo). These residencies bring together virtuoso musicians with rich and diverse musical backgrounds to work together with the aim of bringing new musical creations to the public.

Founder of the ECCA-Makan, Ahmed El Maghraby is the musical director of Nass Makan. With his team, this unconditional lover of music has been travelling around Egypt for more than 20 years with recorders and cameras to immortalise the sounds and traditions of the Nile Valley. The result of this work is thousands of hours of music in the form of audio and video files, which can be consulted in the heart of Cairo at Makan.

From the very beginning of this meticulous archival work, one question imposed itself on Ahmed El Maghraby: what next? When all the living sources of Egyptian musical traditions are located and documented, when they are all recorded, preserved and archived: what will become of them? The answer lay in the words of Sheikh Amīn El-Khūlī: Awal al-taǧdīd, qatal al-qadīm fahman (the beginning of renewal is to kill the old by assimilating it).

The ECCA-Makan has thus established itself since the 2000s as the stage for musical encounters that draw on traditional knowledge to take the listener down new musical paths. The musicians and singers gathered within Nass Makan for this musical creation mix with amplified instruments the melodies of the zār ritual, mawwāl, madīḥ, pentatonic modes and maqām, to form generational bridges and offer a historical and poetic glimpse into the sonic soul of Egypt.

With Nass Makan, the listener explores the musical roots of Egypt, before being immersed in a striking new creative experience.

Practical information :
Broadcast on Thursday 1 July at 6.15pm in the Plateau room at the Cube (29 avenue Robert Schuman in Aix-en-Provence)
Registration required, subject to availability of 60 places : https://framaforms.org/inscription-au-concert-nass-makan-1623936469
The event will be followed by a dinner at the restaurant Le Riad (21 rue Lieutaud in Aix-en-Provence) : https://framaforms.org/inscription-restaurant-le-riad-jeudi-1er-juillet-2021-20h00-1623778470

© ECCA-Makan