Radio Afloat

Radio Afloat, envisioned as a drifting radio transmitter, is a meditation on the intertwined destinies of people and the living world, and on the connections that reveal themselves with particular clarity in times of collective pain. Conceived as an eight-movement suite, the work probes shifts in power and the scars left by conflict, as well as the ways these dynamics weaken the lands and communities shaped by them.

Echoing Ounsi el-Hage’s poem “The Trace of the Blue Passion”:

“... And just like the birds who gather wisely
I walked from ocean to ocean
From summit to branch
From night to night to night
Until I was struck
By the prestige of a gentle madness.
…
And when I saw her beauty, I fell in love with a dove who carried me...”

(translated from Arabic by Sara Elkamel)

Written for Sarafand, the chamber-jazz quintet led by Layale Chaker, the piece reflects her musical world, moving between Arabic maqām, jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary writing. Improvised passages open space for the singular voices and personal influences of the ensemble’s members.

Original commission: Radio WQXR (Layale Chaker’s 2022 radio residency)

Layale Chaker, violin
Jake Charkey, cello
Sam Minaie, bass
John Hadfield, drums

Recorded at the Bunker Studios, Brooklyn
Produced by Layale Chaker, Phillip Golub and Sam Minaie
Mixing and Mastering: Sam Minaie
Visual art: Kevork Mourad
Label: In a Circle Records

Inner Rhyme

Inner Rhyme is a musical suite that explores the foundational aesthetics of classical Arabic poetry through a demanding, deeply attentive sonic approach. It is grounded in a meticulous exploration of the twelve traditional prosodic meters (the buḥūr) that have structured Arabic poetic meter since the Abbasid era.

Balancing formal rigor and expressive freedom, the work unfolds motifs inspired by poetic scansion while opening itself to the fluidity of oral forms and the logics of improvisation. Words are treated as sonic entities, each charged with its own pulse, capable of generating rhythm, melodic contour, and percussive tension.

Beyond its musical gesture, the suite seeks to capture the affective memory of the great Arabic poetic narratives -vibrant testimonies of life, death, war, and love - translating them into a polyphony where composition and spontaneity intersect.

A laureate of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) in 2018, Inner Rhyme proposes a sonic rereading of poetry as a living body, where each verse becomes an embodied rhythm, and each breath a chamber of resonance.

Jake Charkey, cello
Phillip Golub, piano
Nick Dunston, bass
Adam Maalouf, percussion

Recorded at The Rift Studio, Brooklyn, New York
Recording & Producing: Radwan Ghazi Moumneh
Mixing: Radwan Ghazi Moumneh at Hotel2Tango, Montreal
Mastering: Harris Newman, Grey Market Mastering
Illustration, visual conception, design: Joseph Kai
Label: In a Circle Records