As part of the Biennale d'Aix and Chroniques
Creative residency.
LABgamerz presents Youmna Saba's new sound performance, the result of a multi-part research and creation residency throughout 2024.
For Akwan (universes), the artist explores heritage sites in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille to understand their acoustic imprints, their interactions with the various sung phonemes of Arabic and their effects on compositional strategies, using her voice and her instrument: the oud. The voice is explored in its intrinsic musicality and its manifestations across different languages, focusing on its accents, pauses, noises, timbres, jerky or flowing rhythms, tics, whispers, buzzes, repetitions; the voice as an acoustic phenomenon that is shaped by the environment and, in turn, takes a leading role in modeling the sonic identity of a space.
As part of the Biennale d'Aix and Chroniques
Delegated production
LABgamerz
Coproduction
GMEM - Centre national de création musicale de Marseille
Support
Maison de la Musique Contemporaine; Sacem
Partnership
Musée des Tapisseries (Aix-en-Provence), Centre de la Vieille Charité and deletere (Marseille)
Youmna Saba
Artist
Youmna Saba is a musician, composer and musicologist. Her research focuses on the relationship between electroacoustic music and the sung Arabic language. Her explorations take the form of several projects: musical composition for her solo project, collaborations and film scores, electroacoustic experiments on new devices imagined for the voice and her instrument, the oud. She is part of several collaborative projects, including Terra Incognita with Kamilya Jubran and Floy Krouchi. She won the first sound residency at the Musée du Quai Branly with her project La Réserve des Non-Dits. She has participated in residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts; Sharjah Art Foundation; Voce CNCM; GMEM; Césaré CNCM; Hwaeom Spiritual Music Residency; Sound Development City; Gyeonggi Creation Center. His fifth solo album Wishah was released on the Touch label in 2023.
Youmna Saba
artist