Faris Ishaq CD Release
Faris Ishaq is a World-Renowned Palestinian Nay Master, Global Jazz Flutist and Composer, known for his virtuosity of the ancient middle eastern flutes called Nay. While honoring his cultural heritage, Faris is a pioneer on the Nay developing an original sound that crosses over Arabic, Jazz, Indian Classical Music and other world music traditions. He has published three albums and performed his music at major Festivals including the London, Monterey and Panama Jazz festivals. Faris is a graduate of Berklee College of Music Global Jazz Institute and has worked with renowned artists like Danilo Perez, John Patitucci and Adnan Joubran. He is currently based in the London, UK.
The Full album will be released consecutively in singles and will be available fully in May 2023. Faris started working on “Kham” in March 2022 and released so far two tracks on digital platforms. The second track of the album “Evoke” was just released last month. Once fully released, the album will be available in Vinyl Disc Format and will be showcased live through Performance and Art Galleries/Installations in Palestine, London and other places to be announced.
“Evoke نَبَط " the second track of the album “Kham” is out now. “Kham” in Arabic means “Raw” and refers to everything that exists in its natural state. “Kham” is a search for the potential in naturally occurring material. The Album honors the sound of the Nay, a raw piece of nature and one of the oldest flutes that still exist dating back to 5000 B.c, to ancient Egypt. Throughout the album, Nay Master Faris Ishaq showcases the diversity and versatility of this instrument that has been stigmatized to limited creative expressions, due to its simple form. The music composition of “Kham” was extracted out of unedited musical improvisations and without borrowing any artificial sounds from the digital library, Faris challenged his performance artistry to create a layered composition of melodic, percussive, cinematic, psychedelic, almost sounding electronic musical layers and effects.
1. Why did you record this CD?
First to showcase the diversity and versatility of Nay Flute, one of the oldest flutes that still exists dating back to 5000.bc to ancient Egypt and currently played in middle eastern countries. The Nay has been stigmatized to limited creative expressions, due to its simple form. While honoring my cultural heritage, my work with the nay is to unlock it’s maximum potential of musical expressions and develop an original sound that crosses over many world music cultures and genres yet is identified by it’s own identity. I wanted to give it a platform to redefine itself in today’s modern musical landscape. Second, I have been intrigued by the imbalance happening in the music industry and how it’s becoming faced paced and more machine dependent. For that, I wanted to create “Kham” using natural instruments like the nay and use these instruments to execute any musical idea I have including percussive, cinematic, psychedelic even almost sounding electronic effects that is usually easier to achieve through the Digital Musical Library.
2. Where did you get your Inspiration?
The inspiration is “Kham”, which in Arabic means “Raw” and refers to everything that exists in its natural state. The album “Kham” is a search for the potential in naturally occurring material. From this inspiration, I composed and recorded the music of “Kham” by extracting the creative potential of unedited musical improvisations, each conveying in it’s nature melodic, rhythmic and harmonic musical cues, in which I have worked to shape and enhance it’s natural flow. The best visual example of this type of creation are carved sculptures, in which the artist works with the nature of the material allowing it to breath and speak for itself. Furthermore, Kham” honors the sound of the Nay, a raw piece of nature. It’s my dedication and gratitude to Nature and the nay flute as a part of it.
3. Facts about the project?
1- The music composition of “Kham” was extracted out of unedited musical improvisations and without borrowing any artificial sounds from the digital library, I created “Kham” using natural instruments like the nay flute while depending on my performance artistry to create a layered composition of melodic, percussive, cinematic, psychedelic, almost sounding electronic musical layers.
2- Kham” honors the sound of the Nay, a raw piece of nature and one of the oldest flutes that still exist dating back to 5000 b.c, to ancient Egypt. Throughout the album, I showcase the diversity and versatility of this instrument that has been stigmatized to limited creative expressions, due to its simple form.
3- The music of “Kham” crosses over many world music cultures or genres yet its defined by it’s own identity.
4- “Evoke” نَبَط the second track of the album “Kham” is out now. “Evoke” or “Nabat " نَبَط in arabic means to appear to the surface after being not visible and it often describes the humans intuition to find knowledge and wisdom within .
Evoke ( Second Track ) Link : https://snd.click/farisishaq
Kham ( First Track ) Link : https://snd.click/octz
