التماهي Shapeshifting
Directed by Juline Hadaya and Yamen Mekdad
Original Music by Sami El-Enany
Boiler Room
PART I - Sawt Syria Motherland
PART II - Sawt Syra: Exile (Europe)
التماهي Shapeshifting
Directed by Juline Hadaya and Yamen Mekdad
Original Music by Sami El-Enany
Boiler Room
PART I - Sawt Syria Motherland
PART II - Sawt Syra: Exile (Europe)
Mandy El-Sayegh
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
In collaboration with sound artist Sami El-Enany and movement artist Chelsea Gordon
Curated by Sara Raza
Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a portal into artist Mandy El-Sayegh’s stream of consciousness, revealing a labyrinth of multiple and overlapping truths. Composed of fractured and repeated actions culminating in an alternative visual and sonic encyclopaedic flow, the exhibition unites ancestral, familial, and collective visual data sourced from ephemera, textiles, literature, newspapers, and other printed materials. These elements are overlaid and camouflaged within her paintings, sound, performance, and wall installations to create poetic codes of resistance that operate in plain sight. El-Sayegh’s methodology is akin to a bricoleur as she engages in the studio art of bricolage—using existing materials and connecting seemingly disparate bodies of visual cultural knowledge to reassemble new meaning.
As part of the exhibition, El-Enany created a quadrophonic sound installation titled نافورة (Nafoura), meaning ‘fountain’. His work references fountains dyed blood-red in public squares in global liberation movements, while also alluding to the endlessly flowing quality of the work.
Using the principles of a Shepard tone – a superposition of frequencies that create the illusion of an infinitely unfolding pitch, نافورة situates the listener in an ever changing sonic geometry where moments of consonance depart as soon as they arrive.
Investigating ideas of noise and turbulence, نافورة (Nafoura) explores military drone soundscapes and their effect on people's everyday lives. Sonic material is derived from El-Enany's research into humanitarian law, first-hand field recordings, personal experience, sound analysis and dialogue. The piece asks what is the effect of the acousmatics of terror? نافورة (Nafoura) is a sonic action, a fountain dyed red with blood, and much like a fountain, acts as a place to come together, to consider our social relationships, to look inward at our complicity in the devastation of the world.
El-Enany also worked with El-Sayegh to develop the sound for a performance work presented at the
gallery, co-created with movement artist Chelsea Gordon. The performance draws on a range of sources,
including diverse forms of prayer rituals which encompass repetition of chants and motion, and engender
trance-like states. Exploring new possibilities for presenting sound and performance, this multi-layered work, like El-Sayegh’s paintings, is infused with complex data and entanglements, capturing various emotions and responses through its layering of audio, movement and kaleidoscopic projections.
El-Enany's work seeks to disrupt supremacist paradigms and hierarchies of knowledge production by delving into global tuning systems, mathematics and metaphysics.
Mandy El-Sayegh
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
In collaboration with sound artist Sami El-Enany and movement artist Chelsea Gordon
Curated by Sara Raza
Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a portal into artist Mandy El-Sayegh’s stream of consciousness, revealing a labyrinth of multiple and overlapping truths. Composed of fractured and repeated actions culminating in an alternative visual and sonic encyclopaedic flow, the exhibition unites ancestral, familial, and collective visual data sourced from ephemera, textiles, literature, newspapers, and other printed materials. These elements are overlaid and camouflaged within her paintings, sound, performance, and wall installations to create poetic codes of resistance that operate in plain sight. El-Sayegh’s methodology is akin to a bricoleur as she engages in the studio art of bricolage—using existing materials and connecting seemingly disparate bodies of visual cultural knowledge to reassemble new meaning.
As part of the exhibition, El-Enany created a quadrophonic sound installation titled نافورة (Nafoura), meaning ‘fountain’. His work references fountains dyed blood-red in public squares in global liberation movements, while also alluding to the endlessly flowing quality of the work.
Using the principles of a Shepard tone – a superposition of frequencies that create the illusion of an infinitely unfolding pitch, نافورة situates the listener in an ever changing sonic geometry where moments of consonance depart as soon as they arrive.
Investigating ideas of noise and turbulence, نافورة (Nafoura) explores military drone soundscapes and their effect on people's everyday lives. Sonic material is derived from El-Enany's research into humanitarian law, first-hand field recordings, personal experience, sound analysis and dialogue. The piece asks what is the effect of the acousmatics of terror? نافورة (Nafoura) is a sonic action, a fountain dyed red with blood, and much like a fountain, acts as a place to come together, to consider our social relationships, to look inward at our complicity in the devastation of the world.
El-Enany also worked with El-Sayegh to develop the sound for a performance work presented at the
gallery, co-created with movement artist Chelsea Gordon. The performance draws on a range of sources,
including diverse forms of prayer rituals which encompass repetition of chants and motion, and engender
trance-like states. Exploring new possibilities for presenting sound and performance, this multi-layered work, like El-Sayegh’s paintings, is infused with complex data and entanglements, capturing various emotions and responses through its layering of audio, movement and kaleidoscopic projections.
El-Enany's work seeks to disrupt supremacist paradigms and hierarchies of knowledge production by delving into global tuning systems, mathematics and metaphysics.
I bring word from Queens! The Book of Harth won the Best Documentary Feature award at Festival of Cinema NYC! Thank you everyone who came out to support the film. It continues to amaze me how our microbudget feature documentary, which I produced, scored and sound designed seems to really resonate with audiences. Coming to a cinema near you 🙂
Learn more about the movie here: https://www.bookofharth.com/about
Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
A Falling Tree Production for 'Short Cuts' for the episode 'Without Words'.
First broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday 17th January 2023
Al Waqwaq. An elusive archipelago reigned by a Queen? Or a tree that bares children in place of fruit? Perhaps, instead, it's a many-branched menagerie, on which animals with prophetic gifts dangle by mane, hoof or hair, and ripe humanoid fruits exclaim ‘Waqwaq!’ as they fall to the forest floor. In Arabic literature, illuminated manuscripts, and Islamic cartography, Al Waqwaq shapeshifts, refuses to stay still. Much like the fierce oceans that reportedly surround the island/s themselves, the myth of Al Waqwaq remains harder to navigate than most.
The origins of this composition are not so easily defined either. From a hearing test that had me deciphering words in a sea of static, to an autumn walk through the dense mountain forests of Western Parnitha—where ghostly leaf music made me swear an oath to tend more carefully to the character of noise in my work. What have I learned from the talking trees? To compose without intention, as if the wind had written it, in all its sonic guises and with the destined beauty of chance.
So let me shroud Al Waqwaq in yet more myth. Where the leaves speak, and consonants cast shadows, where letters fall like water droplets, nestled under wing and silver beak, between the Murmur we emerge from and the Murmur we return to, we grow upon the Waqwaq tree.
Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
A Falling Tree Production for 'Short Cuts' for the episode 'Without Words'.
First broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday 17th January 2023
Al Waqwaq. An elusive archipelago reigned by a Queen? Or a tree that bares children in place of fruit? Perhaps, instead, it's a many-branched menagerie, on which animals with prophetic gifts dangle by mane, hoof or hair, and ripe humanoid fruits exclaim ‘Waqwaq!’ as they fall to the forest floor. In Arabic literature, illuminated manuscripts, and Islamic cartography, Al Waqwaq shapeshifts, refuses to stay still. Much like the fierce oceans that reportedly surround the island/s themselves, the myth of Al Waqwaq remains harder to navigate than most.
The origins of this composition are not so easily defined either. From a hearing test that had me deciphering words in a sea of static, to an autumn walk through the dense mountain forests of Western Parnitha—where ghostly leaf music made me swear an oath to tend more carefully to the character of noise in my work. What have I learned from the talking trees? To compose without intention, as if the wind had written it, in all its sonic guises and with the destined beauty of chance.
So let me shroud Al Waqwaq in yet more myth. Where the leaves speak, and consonants cast shadows, where letters fall like water droplets, nestled under wing and silver beak, between the Murmur we emerge from and the Murmur we return to, we grow upon the Waqwaq tree.
Other Cinema’s new film, And Still, It Remains, will soon open at Lux. The film examines time, toxic colonialism and how we survive the end of our world. I am the Sound Designer for this striking and important film and hope you can make it for the breakfast opening on 8th September. More info here:
https://lux.org.uk/event/arwa-aburawa-and-turab-shah-and-still-it-remains/
I’ve written a 75-minute score for a dance piece called Woodhill. It’s a call to arms about the crisis facing prisons and tells the story of three families searching for justice.
This is one of my harshest and most machine-led productions to date, swallowing aesthetics of industrial and horror and navigating themes of state violence, grief, love and resistance. Catch it somewhere! Tix here: https://www.lungtheatre.co.uk/productions/woodhill
Show Dates:
North Wall, Oxford:
27th & 28th July (previews)
19 October – 20 October 2023
Summerhall, Edinburgh
2nd – 27th August (exl 3rd, 14th, 21st)
Shoreditch Town Hall, London:
20 September – 8th October
If you are in Edinburgh, London or Oxford, go go go…
Makes me so happy to be part of the lineup for the very special Exist Festival.
Taking place over three days at Cafe OTO & The Yard in London from the 8th to the 10th of September, 2023.
The festival has been a beacon of unity between Palestinian and global artists. Come through!
I’m on the Friday with Nicolas Jaar and Maria Eichberg and will be hanging out the whole weekend.. So happy we all get to be together ✨
TICKETS HERE: https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/exist-festival/
Artists involved : Maria Eichberg / Sami El-Enany / jaar / Ali Hamdan / Kujo / Drew McDowall / Dirar Kalash / Renata / Choronzon & Dahc Dermur VIII / Oxhy / Marleen Boschen / Zahra Malkani / Rrose
A Project by Dorine van Meel
Video, Sound and performance piece
Developed in collaboration with sound artist Sami El-Enany
With poems by Khairani Barokka, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio and Selina Neirok Leem
Performance event, Extracity, Antwerp, 15 October 2022
Exhibition, Die Digitale, Düsseldorf, 7 October - 22 October 2022
Performance event, South London Gallery, London, 29 June 2022
Exhibition, Pylon Lab, online, June 2023
Screening, HELLERAU, Dresden, summer of 2023
And darkness arrives early,
but who is there to witness.
The approaching shadows play,
a gentle dance of planets.
Silent Echoes consists of a series of live performances and video installations and is developed in collaboration with sound artist Sami El-Enany. The project includes poetic contributions by artists, writers and climate activists Khairani Barokka, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Selina Neirok Leem and myself. The work is a collaborative effort and develops over time on different platforms, accumulating contributions.
The composed spaces were powered by 31 speakers that spanned the site of the exhibition and became interrelated sonic environments for the recitations of the contributing poets. Amid the sounds of the piece we hear electric fires in the rustle of static, the aimless rattling of abandoned machinery, birdsong in the cages of distortion, a folk song -an ocean of distance away, and the subterranean moaning of the Earth.
Silent Echoes addresses the climate crisis through these various poetic contributions written by poets and activists who come from different islands across the Pacific Ocean. Each poem highlights different ways in which the climate crisis unfolds on these islands through the workings of (neo-)colonialist practices past and present. Whether it is because of the poisoning of the water due to the presence of military remnants from World War II, because of the clearing of the original forests and the planting of endless fields of palm trees for the production of palm oil, because of the suppression of the language and culture of the indigenous population by the colonial settlers or because of the nuclear tests that were carried out on the atolls without any regard of the people living there. As much as these poems mourn the loss of life – in all its different forms, they also speak of resistance, endurance and cohabitation, and offer a hopeful view for our world in the face of a dark present and an uncertain future.
The images that accompany the many voices show computer generated islands in which digital waves turn into digital grains of desert sand, presenting the viewer with a dystopian vision, in which an unfolding ecological catastrophe is implied.
Silent Echoes has received financial support from the Mondriaan Fonds
A Project by Dorine van Meel
Video, Sound and performance piece
Developed in collaboration with sound artist Sami El-Enany
With poems by Khairani Barokka, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio and Selina Neirok Leem
Performance event, Extracity, Antwerp, 15 October 2022
Exhibition, Die Digitale, Düsseldorf, 7 October - 22 October 2022
Performance event, South London Gallery, London, 29 June 2022
Exhibition, Pylon Lab, online, June 2023
Screening, HELLERAU, Dresden, summer of 2023
And darkness arrives early,
but who is there to witness.
The approaching shadows play,
a gentle dance of planets.
Silent Echoes consists of a series of live performances and video installations and is developed in collaboration with sound artist Sami El-Enany. The project includes poetic contributions by artists, writers and climate activists Khairani Barokka, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Selina Neirok Leem and myself. The work is a collaborative effort and develops over time on different platforms, accumulating contributions.
The composed spaces were powered by 31 speakers that spanned the site of the exhibition and became interrelated sonic environments for the recitations of the contributing poets. Amid the sounds of the piece we hear electric fires in the rustle of static, the aimless rattling of abandoned machinery, birdsong in the cages of distortion, a folk song -an ocean of distance away, and the subterranean moaning of the Earth.
Silent Echoes addresses the climate crisis through these various poetic contributions written by poets and activists who come from different islands across the Pacific Ocean. Each poem highlights different ways in which the climate crisis unfolds on these islands through the workings of (neo-)colonialist practices past and present. Whether it is because of the poisoning of the water due to the presence of military remnants from World War II, because of the clearing of the original forests and the planting of endless fields of palm trees for the production of palm oil, because of the suppression of the language and culture of the indigenous population by the colonial settlers or because of the nuclear tests that were carried out on the atolls without any regard of the people living there. As much as these poems mourn the loss of life – in all its different forms, they also speak of resistance, endurance and cohabitation, and offer a hopeful view for our world in the face of a dark present and an uncertain future.
The images that accompany the many voices show computer generated islands in which digital waves turn into digital grains of desert sand, presenting the viewer with a dystopian vision, in which an unfolding ecological catastrophe is implied.
Silent Echoes has received financial support from the Mondriaan Fonds
Directed by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah
Cinamatography by Turab Shah
Edited by Arwa Aburawa
Sound Design by Sami El-Enany
Produced by Other Cinemas
LUX
Open City Documentary Festival
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival
‘And still, it remains’ is a new artists’ film that examines time, toxic colonialism and how we survive the end of our world. In 2021, radioactive sand resulting from French nuclear bombs travelled in the winds all the way from the Algerian Sahara back to France. The bombs had been detonated in Algeria back in the 1960s. These returning winds were a reminder that the environmental legacies of colonialism cannot be forgotten or contained; it also raised the more pertinent question of how people live with the afterlife of toxic colonialism.
‘And still, it remains’ spends time with the residents of a village in the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria who live surrounded by ancient rock art and the legacy of France’s nuclear bombs. Exploring their migration to the area, faith, their way of life, colonialism and the nuclear bombs, the film asks: What does it mean to live in such intimacy with toxic colonialism? What understanding is gained from this proximity? The feminist thinker bell hooks talks about a particular way of knowing that comes from experience – “it’s a deep understanding that is often expressed through the body, as what they know has been deeply inscribed on it.” How do people make sense of what happened to them? What are their ideas of justice? And finally, how do they find a way to carry on?
‘And still, it remains’ is presented in collaboration with Open City Documentary Festival (6-12 September 2023) and was commissioned by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, supported using funds from Arts Council England and The Elephant Trust.
Directed by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah
Cinamatography by Turab Shah
Edited by Arwa Aburawa
Sound Design by Sami El-Enany
Produced by Other Cinemas
LUX
Open City Documentary Festival
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival
‘And still, it remains’ is a new artists’ film that examines time, toxic colonialism and how we survive the end of our world. In 2021, radioactive sand resulting from French nuclear bombs travelled in the winds all the way from the Algerian Sahara back to France. The bombs had been detonated in Algeria back in the 1960s. These returning winds were a reminder that the environmental legacies of colonialism cannot be forgotten or contained; it also raised the more pertinent question of how people live with the afterlife of toxic colonialism.
‘And still, it remains’ spends time with the residents of a village in the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria who live surrounded by ancient rock art and the legacy of France’s nuclear bombs. Exploring their migration to the area, faith, their way of life, colonialism and the nuclear bombs, the film asks: What does it mean to live in such intimacy with toxic colonialism? What understanding is gained from this proximity? The feminist thinker bell hooks talks about a particular way of knowing that comes from experience – “it’s a deep understanding that is often expressed through the body, as what they know has been deeply inscribed on it.” How do people make sense of what happened to them? What are their ideas of justice? And finally, how do they find a way to carry on?
‘And still, it remains’ is presented in collaboration with Open City Documentary Festival (6-12 September 2023) and was commissioned by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, supported using funds from Arts Council England and The Elephant Trust.
A Project by Tamara Al-Mashouk
Composed spaces by Sami El-Enany
Supported by:
Counterpoints Arts, Dover Arts Development, Shubbak Festival, Frieze No.9 Cork Street, Arts Council England
Exhibited:
-The Citadel, Dover 24 June, 2023-
-Frieze: No. 9 Cork Street 21-22 July 2023-
I’d search forever, I want to remember is a multidisciplinary body of work that asks if matter and place remember the way our bodies do. The work is lead by Tamara Al-Mashouk and presented by Counterpoints Arts, Dover Arts Development, Shubbak Festival and Frieze No.9 Cork Street.
Following a site-specific presentation in Dover the work was shown at No.9 Cork Street for four days.
I presented two multichannel compositions as part of the show. The first piece, set in a casemate built in the 1800’s on the cliffs of Dover is a six channel composition fully spatialised for the site. In the same room a wave machine containing water from the English Channel was brought in as witness. The sonics are centred in love and solidarity for all those that seek and have sought sanctuary. My anger at the injustice and cruelty of the border regime manifests as a desire to hold the humanity and pain of those who make dangerous journeys out of a human desire to live and better one’s life. Within the composition are over two thousand hand crafted sonic reflections (for each the starting point was a grain of rice bouncing off the strings of a uniquely tuned and prepared hammered dulcimer).
In the next room is a three channel video piece exploring the psyche of an abandoned detention centre. My sonic materials for this room are faint atmospheric events in VLF radio bands captured first-hand with magnetic antenna, as well as extremely faint vibrations in the material and soil captured by a geophone. The intention here is to expose the way in which sites of state violence, such as detention centres and prisons, hold a residue of that violence while at the same time alluding to the pain felt in the earth of the site itself. They are haunted locations, their walls embedded with the fear, anxiety, depression and hope of their inhabitants. The work hopes for a time when nature will reclaim all such sites of state violence.
Both composed spaces become interrelated sonic environments for a meditation on remembering. Thank you Tamara for the opportunity to sink into these feelings and help tell this story with you.
~
Incorporating a three-channel film of a disused refugee detention centre, a photographic series that engages with the shoreline as a site of poetic multiplicity and a wave machine containing water from the English Channel, I’d search forever, I want to remember continues Al-Mashouk’s exploration of sites of solace and memory, and spaces of collective healing against the backdrop of the refugee crisis. Artefacts created during workshops in Dover were displayed, and a dance performance by Fadi Giha featuring the spatialised score by Sami El-Enany took place on the opening night.
The work presented is the result of a gathering of artists thinking and organising together. Manon Schwich, Sami El-Enany, Parker Heyl, Angus Frost, Lorella Bianco, Fadi Giha and Patricia Doors join Al-Mashouk in considering sites of solace within embodied experiences of hyper-politicisation.
A Project by Tamara Al-Mashouk
Composed spaces by Sami El-Enany
Supported by:
Counterpoints Arts, Dover Arts Development, Shubbak Festival, Frieze No.9 Cork Street, Arts Council England
Exhibited:
-The Citadel, Dover 24 June, 2023-
-Frieze: No. 9 Cork Street 21-22 July 2023-
I’d search forever, I want to remember is a multidisciplinary body of work that asks if matter and place remember the way our bodies do. The work is lead by Tamara Al-Mashouk and presented by Counterpoints Arts, Dover Arts Development, Shubbak Festival and Frieze No.9 Cork Street.
Following a site-specific presentation in Dover the work was shown at No.9 Cork Street for four days.
I presented two multichannel compositions as part of the show. The first piece, set in a casemate built in the 1800’s on the cliffs of Dover is a six channel composition fully spatialised for the site. In the same room a wave machine containing water from the English Channel was brought in as witness. The sonics are centred in love and solidarity for all those that seek and have sought sanctuary. My anger at the injustice and cruelty of the border regime manifests as a desire to hold the humanity and pain of those who make dangerous journeys out of a human desire to live and better one’s life. Within the composition are over two thousand hand crafted sonic reflections (for each the starting point was a grain of rice bouncing off the strings of a uniquely tuned and prepared hammered dulcimer).
In the next room is a three channel video piece exploring the psyche of an abandoned detention centre. My sonic materials for this room are faint atmospheric events in VLF radio bands captured first-hand with magnetic antenna, as well as extremely faint vibrations in the material and soil captured by a geophone. The intention here is to expose the way in which sites of state violence, such as detention centres and prisons, hold a residue of that violence while at the same time alluding to the pain felt in the earth of the site itself. They are haunted locations, their walls embedded with the fear, anxiety, depression and hope of their inhabitants. The work hopes for a time when nature will reclaim all such sites of state violence.
Both composed spaces become interrelated sonic environments for a meditation on remembering. Thank you Tamara for the opportunity to sink into these feelings and help tell this story with you.
~
Incorporating a three-channel film of a disused refugee detention centre, a photographic series that engages with the shoreline as a site of poetic multiplicity and a wave machine containing water from the English Channel, I’d search forever, I want to remember continues Al-Mashouk’s exploration of sites of solace and memory, and spaces of collective healing against the backdrop of the refugee crisis. Artefacts created during workshops in Dover were displayed, and a dance performance by Fadi Giha featuring the spatialised score by Sami El-Enany took place on the opening night.
The work presented is the result of a gathering of artists thinking and organising together. Manon Schwich, Sami El-Enany, Parker Heyl, Angus Frost, Lorella Bianco, Fadi Giha and Patricia Doors join Al-Mashouk in considering sites of solace within embodied experiences of hyper-politicisation.
Written, Produced and Directed by LUNG
Music by Sami El-Enany
Choreography by Alexzandra Sarmiento
North Wall, Oxford: 27th & 28th July
Summerhall, Edinburgh: 2nd - 27th August
Shoreditch Town Hall, London: 20 September - 8th October
★★★★★ "Astonishing portrait of Britain’s failing prison system."
The Guardian
★★★★★ "A very powerful show that will leave you feeling the desire to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers."
The Student
★★★★ "You'll have tears in your eyes and anger in your hearts."
The Scotsman."
Three men at Woodhill prison are dead. Their families demand answers. This is a call to arms about the crisis facing prisons.
Through choreography and a machine-led, 75 minute score by Sami El-Enany, Woodhill shines a light on the hidden story of HMP Woodhill. Lyrically told in their own words, three families investigate what happened to their boys. What they discover is so haunting, it turns their world upside down. An explosive true story.
Written, Produced and Directed by LUNG
Music by Sami El-Enany
Choreography by Alexzandra Sarmiento
North Wall, Oxford: 27th & 28th July
Summerhall, Edinburgh: 2nd - 27th August
Shoreditch Town Hall, London: 20 September - 8th October
★★★★★ "Astonishing portrait of Britain’s failing prison system."
The Guardian
★★★★★ "A very powerful show that will leave you feeling the desire to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers."
The Student
★★★★ "You'll have tears in your eyes and anger in your hearts."
The Scotsman."
Three men at Woodhill prison are dead. Their families demand answers. This is a call to arms about the crisis facing prisons.
Through choreography and a machine-led, 75 minute score by Sami El-Enany, Woodhill shines a light on the hidden story of HMP Woodhill. Lyrically told in their own words, three families investigate what happened to their boys. What they discover is so haunting, it turns their world upside down. An explosive true story.
Directed by Asmaa Jama and Gouled Ahmed
Written and voiced by Asmaa Jama
Music, Sound Design and Mix by Sami El-Enany
Costume design: Gouled Ahmed
Tailoring: Bisrat Negusie
Makeup Artist: Asmaa Jama
Archival photos c/o Roda Ali Dalmar and Mohamed Jama
Spike Island
Arts Council England
West of England Visual Art
This collaboration between Asmaa Jama and Gouled Ahmed explores self-portraiture, memory and the archive. The exhibition is inspired by African photography studios; places of self-expression that are at once political and historical, fictional and intimate.
Central to the exhibition is a new film commission, Except this time nothing returns from the ashes. Shot on location in Addis Ababa, the film follows the ghostly, glitchy presence of those who exist at the margins of the city. Combining poetry and music, the film explores how national canons are constructed and can be corrupted.
Stemming from the artists’ interactions with their families’ photographic collections and archives, the film opens a portal to memory, for those who otherwise would be forgotten. For both Jama and Gouled, self-portraiture becomes an act of resisting erasure, demonstrating the potential of photography and the archive to remember.
The film is surrounded by a colourful octagonal wall. Decorated with cut-outs of geometric designs, reminiscent of the patterns found in the film, this structure is a homage to East Africa’s built environment.
In the back perimeter, the installation Ash is our inheritance comprises a poem written directly on the wall, a line of charcoal, and a black and white chequered vinyl floor that evokes the interiors of African photography studios. In the text, Jama explores the notion of the aftermath, and how to understand the past when all that is left is ash and ruins.
Directed by Asmaa Jama and Gouled Ahmed
Written and voiced by Asmaa Jama
Music, Sound Design and Mix by Sami El-Enany
Costume design: Gouled Ahmed
Tailoring: Bisrat Negusie
Makeup Artist: Asmaa Jama
Archival photos c/o Roda Ali Dalmar and Mohamed Jama
Spike Island
Arts Council England
West of England Visual Art
This collaboration between Asmaa Jama and Gouled Ahmed explores self-portraiture, memory and the archive. The exhibition is inspired by African photography studios; places of self-expression that are at once political and historical, fictional and intimate.
Central to the exhibition is a new film commission, Except this time nothing returns from the ashes. Shot on location in Addis Ababa, the film follows the ghostly, glitchy presence of those who exist at the margins of the city. Combining poetry and music, the film explores how national canons are constructed and can be corrupted.
Stemming from the artists’ interactions with their families’ photographic collections and archives, the film opens a portal to memory, for those who otherwise would be forgotten. For both Jama and Gouled, self-portraiture becomes an act of resisting erasure, demonstrating the potential of photography and the archive to remember.
The film is surrounded by a colourful octagonal wall. Decorated with cut-outs of geometric designs, reminiscent of the patterns found in the film, this structure is a homage to East Africa’s built environment.
In the back perimeter, the installation Ash is our inheritance comprises a poem written directly on the wall, a line of charcoal, and a black and white chequered vinyl floor that evokes the interiors of African photography studios. In the text, Jama explores the notion of the aftermath, and how to understand the past when all that is left is ash and ruins.
Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4
Wheel Talk is composed entirely using the momentum of a single 700c bicycle wheel. The sounds and rhythms were generated by attaching a range of beaters to the wheel including pencils, pegs, paintbrushes and plectrums. The wheel is then spun and comes into contact with a range of surfaces, including drum skins, bells, guitars, cymbals and glasses. Preparing the wheel in different ways by shifting the number of beaters as well as their spacing around the wheel allowed disobedient polyrhythms to emerge. Another governing force in the piece is friction, the wheel slows at various speeds depending on what surface it is coming into contact with, as a result, new textures and intensities materialise in time lapses.
Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4
Wheel Talk is composed entirely using the momentum of a single 700c bicycle wheel. The sounds and rhythms were generated by attaching a range of beaters to the wheel including pencils, pegs, paintbrushes and plectrums. The wheel is then spun and comes into contact with a range of surfaces, including drum skins, bells, guitars, cymbals and glasses. Preparing the wheel in different ways by shifting the number of beaters as well as their spacing around the wheel allowed disobedient polyrhythms to emerge. Another governing force in the piece is friction, the wheel slows at various speeds depending on what surface it is coming into contact with, as a result, new textures and intensities materialise in time lapses.
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Directed by Steve Bond and Joby Waldman
Music and Sound Design by Sami El-Enany
A Reduced Listening Production for BBC Radio 4
After decades of searching the Valley of the Kings, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his newly appointed Egyptian assistant Shafiq Tadros uncover a step leading to the tomb of Tutankhamun. Funder Lord Carnarvon and his daughter Lady Evelyn arrive and an unauthorised inspection of the tomb takes place. Decades later a chance meeting on the streets of Paris with an Egyptian student causes Shafiq to excavate his own story.
In November 1922 the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb became the biggest news story in the world. Virtually untouched for over three thousand years, the tomb contained priceless artefacts including a solid gold coffin, thrones, archery bows, trumpets and fresh linen underwear. Egypt, newly liberated from British rule, hailed the discovery of Tutankhamun as a symbol of its glorious rebirth as an independent nation. But who will control the terms of the dig, and who will keep the treasure?
Original drama based on true events. Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Directed by Steve Bond and Joby Waldman
Music and Sound Design by Sami El-Enany
A Reduced Listening Production for BBC Radio 4
After decades of searching the Valley of the Kings, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his newly appointed Egyptian assistant Shafiq Tadros uncover a step leading to the tomb of Tutankhamun. Funder Lord Carnarvon and his daughter Lady Evelyn arrive and an unauthorised inspection of the tomb takes place. Decades later a chance meeting on the streets of Paris with an Egyptian student causes Shafiq to excavate his own story.
In November 1922 the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb became the biggest news story in the world. Virtually untouched for over three thousand years, the tomb contained priceless artefacts including a solid gold coffin, thrones, archery bows, trumpets and fresh linen underwear. Egypt, newly liberated from British rule, hailed the discovery of Tutankhamun as a symbol of its glorious rebirth as an independent nation. But who will control the terms of the dig, and who will keep the treasure?
Original drama based on true events. Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Directed by Pierre Guillet
Produced by Hiran Balasuriya, Sami El-Enany, Pierre Guillet and Matthew Maria
Edited by Hiran Balasuriya
Music by Sami El-Enany
Sound Design by Steve Bond and Sami El-Enany
A Shadow Court and Affirmative Youth Production
-WINNER: First Prize for Best Feature Documentary - Rhode Island International Film Festival-
-WINNER: Best Documentary Feature - Atlanta Underground Film Festival-
-WINNER: Best Documentary Feature: Kevin Smith's SModCastle Film Festival 2022-
For 20 years, conceptual artist David Greg Harth carried a Bible with him every single day, seeking signatures from the most culturally significant people in the world. In The Book of Harth, filmmaker Pierre Guillet follows the artist during the final year of his absurd quest, trailing him to scenes of frenetic celebrity worship. As Harth secures signatures behind stage doors, in city streets, and on the fringes of red carpets, Guillet cops spontaneous interviews with previous signees, from Noam Chomsky to Kevin Smith. As the last hours of his magnum opus draw to a close, Harth struggles to reconcile the project’s meaning with its personal cost.
Directed by Pierre Guillet
Produced by Hiran Balasuriya, Sami El-Enany, Pierre Guillet and Matthew Maria
Edited by Hiran Balasuriya
Music by Sami El-Enany
Sound Design by Steve Bond and Sami El-Enany
A Shadow Court and Affirmative Youth Production
-WINNER: First Prize for Best Feature Documentary - Rhode Island International Film Festival-
-WINNER: Best Documentary Feature - Atlanta Underground Film Festival-
-WINNER: Best Documentary Feature: Kevin Smith's SModCastle Film Festival 2022-
For 20 years, conceptual artist David Greg Harth carried a Bible with him every single day, seeking signatures from the most culturally significant people in the world. In The Book of Harth, filmmaker Pierre Guillet follows the artist during the final year of his absurd quest, trailing him to scenes of frenetic celebrity worship. As Harth secures signatures behind stage doors, in city streets, and on the fringes of red carpets, Guillet cops spontaneous interviews with previous signees, from Noam Chomsky to Kevin Smith. As the last hours of his magnum opus draw to a close, Harth struggles to reconcile the project’s meaning with its personal cost.
Directed by Pierre Guillet
Written by Pierre Guillet, Timothy John Foster, Lea Nayeli
Starring Lea Nayeli, Raul A. Perez, Richard DiFrisco
Music, Sound Design and Mix by Sami El-Enany
Feature film telling the story of a young transgender woman who escapes her troubled home to find solace in a dilapidated boatyard.
Christina is a young trans woman who’s running—from her past and home. When she buys a broken-down boat for that purpose, she gets more than she bargained for in the boat’s owner, Esteban—warm, funny and dying to take her to dinner. He gives her a place to stay on an abandoned barge and helps her fix up the boat. Slowly but surely, they find themselves quietly navigating the sometimes messy waters of a straight man falling for a trans woman.
As their connection grows, Christina makes a temporary but real home for herself on the docks and begins to rebuild her life as Esteban rebuilds her boat. Day by day, she begins to find something steady in a ramshackle barge, a barely-running boat, and stocking the aisles in a mundane grocery store. She slowly sheds the pieces of the life that haunts her, moving past the memory of an assault and people who never valued her.
But maybe it’s not in romance that we find connections that matter—maybe it’s in something deeper than that, something that looks a lot more like real, true friendship. That is what Christina and Esteban find in each other. We can’t find home standing still; for some of us, home is in finding who we are, in raising the anchors and embracing freedom on the water.
Directed by Pierre Guillet
Written by Pierre Guillet, Timothy John Foster, Lea Nayeli
Starring Lea Nayeli, Raul A. Perez, Richard DiFrisco
Music, Sound Design and Mix by Sami El-Enany
Feature film telling the story of a young transgender woman who escapes her troubled home to find solace in a dilapidated boatyard.
Christina is a young trans woman who’s running—from her past and home. When she buys a broken-down boat for that purpose, she gets more than she bargained for in the boat’s owner, Esteban—warm, funny and dying to take her to dinner. He gives her a place to stay on an abandoned barge and helps her fix up the boat. Slowly but surely, they find themselves quietly navigating the sometimes messy waters of a straight man falling for a trans woman.
As their connection grows, Christina makes a temporary but real home for herself on the docks and begins to rebuild her life as Esteban rebuilds her boat. Day by day, she begins to find something steady in a ramshackle barge, a barely-running boat, and stocking the aisles in a mundane grocery store. She slowly sheds the pieces of the life that haunts her, moving past the memory of an assault and people who never valued her.
But maybe it’s not in romance that we find connections that matter—maybe it’s in something deeper than that, something that looks a lot more like real, true friendship. That is what Christina and Esteban find in each other. We can’t find home standing still; for some of us, home is in finding who we are, in raising the anchors and embracing freedom on the water.
Written and Directed by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah
Music and Sound Design by Sami El-Enany
Commissioned by the Brent Biennial 2022
Informed by interviews with first-generation migrants, this short film weaves together the lives of multiple characters as they confront inherited ideas of belonging.
From the severed connection to a motherland following the death of a parent, to the generational experience of displacement, or the feeling of nostalgia for a place and time forever out of reach, I Carry It With Me Everywhere explores how migration results in moments of rupture from which new understandings of home and belonging may emerge.
The UK government’s antagonistic relationship with migrant communities forms the quietly simmering backdrop of the film, as communities are forced to come to terms with the reality that not everyone can find safety and belonging in the nation state. This reality was most recently demonstrated by the Windrush scandal, as well as the new proposals brought forward by the Nationality and Borders Act, through which the government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, or to strip non-white British people of their citizenship without warning.
Shot in black and white, the film seeks to convey the timeless and ongoing search for answers in response to the experience of these hostile environments, which are familiar to many migrant communities in the UK. In the process, they seek to subvert the idea that belonging is an inherently positive experience. What if a moment of belonging here, in the UK, is also a moment of losing belonging somewhere else? What if that shift also requires giving up a more rooted space of belonging for a precarious one, one that is always at risk of being taken away? The film evokes this deep sense of loss, whilst also honouring what people continually manage to build and create in resistance.
Written and Directed by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah
Music and Sound Design by Sami El-Enany
Commissioned by the Brent Biennial 2022
Informed by interviews with first-generation migrants, this short film weaves together the lives of multiple characters as they confront inherited ideas of belonging.
From the severed connection to a motherland following the death of a parent, to the generational experience of displacement, or the feeling of nostalgia for a place and time forever out of reach, I Carry It With Me Everywhere explores how migration results in moments of rupture from which new understandings of home and belonging may emerge.
The UK government’s antagonistic relationship with migrant communities forms the quietly simmering backdrop of the film, as communities are forced to come to terms with the reality that not everyone can find safety and belonging in the nation state. This reality was most recently demonstrated by the Windrush scandal, as well as the new proposals brought forward by the Nationality and Borders Act, through which the government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, or to strip non-white British people of their citizenship without warning.
Shot in black and white, the film seeks to convey the timeless and ongoing search for answers in response to the experience of these hostile environments, which are familiar to many migrant communities in the UK. In the process, they seek to subvert the idea that belonging is an inherently positive experience. What if a moment of belonging here, in the UK, is also a moment of losing belonging somewhere else? What if that shift also requires giving up a more rooted space of belonging for a precarious one, one that is always at risk of being taken away? The film evokes this deep sense of loss, whilst also honouring what people continually manage to build and create in resistance.
Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Tuesday 31 May 2022 as part of 'Short Cuts, Series 31, Sound Effects'
A Falling Tree Production
Accompaniment for Ever-Present Sounds first maps the sound of my tinnitus, a high slightly muffled G sharp in my right ear, then uses that sound as an inspiration for a composition.
The thought was, perhaps by treating my tinnitus as an integral part of something I find beautiful, I could befriend it.
A month after making this piece, I have noticed that my tinnitus bothers me less.
Sometimes our fears are like huge and contorted shadows of a finger puppet. If we are able to face them, we may realise they are actually very small.
Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Tuesday 31 May 2022 as part of 'Short Cuts, Series 31, Sound Effects'
A Falling Tree Production
Accompaniment for Ever-Present Sounds first maps the sound of my tinnitus, a high slightly muffled G sharp in my right ear, then uses that sound as an inspiration for a composition.
The thought was, perhaps by treating my tinnitus as an integral part of something I find beautiful, I could befriend it.
A month after making this piece, I have noticed that my tinnitus bothers me less.
Sometimes our fears are like huge and contorted shadows of a finger puppet. If we are able to face them, we may realise they are actually very small.
Created by Rose Nordin in collaboration with Rob Akin
Music and Sound by Sami El-Enany
Collaborative art publishing practice OOMK (One of My Kind) create a new commission for Art Night 2021, with a short film that documents the making of their visual newspaper "STUART Papers"
Created by Rose Nordin in collaboration with Rob Akin
Music and Sound by Sami El-Enany
Collaborative art publishing practice OOMK (One of My Kind) create a new commission for Art Night 2021, with a short film that documents the making of their visual newspaper "STUART Papers"
A game created by Sami El-Enany and David Denyer
Produced by Werkflow
Art by Viktor Timofeev
Graphic Design by Workform
Deadly Structures is a first-person open-world soundgame set in a land that cannot be seen. Carved entirely out of first-hand field recordings made in abandoned industrial landscapes in Leipzig, a world both vivid and unspeakable was born.
Become the User, a nameless character that roams a sentient wasteland, an ear-witness to an unliving world. Encounter forgotten technologies and cryptic mythologies. Confront, evade and embody other organisms, always at the mercy of a hostile and every-changing ecosystem. Fix, break, scavenge and kill for a hope to escape, but most of all, do not lose your way... Only the most loyal players have a chance of escaping Deadly Structures and uncovering their ultimate purpose.
...Or do none of this and something else entirely. Deadly Structures was conceived as a pareidolic soundworld where each player can imagine their own world and will throughout.
Deadly Structures is created using the Unreal Engine and FMOD and is playable on Mac and PC with additional PS4 and XBOX controller support.
A game created by Sami El-Enany and David Denyer
Produced by Werkflow
Art by Viktor Timofeev
Graphic Design by Workform
Deadly Structures is a first-person open-world soundgame set in a land that cannot be seen. Carved entirely out of first-hand field recordings made in abandoned industrial landscapes in Leipzig, a world both vivid and unspeakable was born.
Become the User, a nameless character that roams a sentient wasteland, an ear-witness to an unliving world. Encounter forgotten technologies and cryptic mythologies. Confront, evade and embody other organisms, always at the mercy of a hostile and every-changing ecosystem. Fix, break, scavenge and kill for a hope to escape, but most of all, do not lose your way... Only the most loyal players have a chance of escaping Deadly Structures and uncovering their ultimate purpose.
...Or do none of this and something else entirely. Deadly Structures was conceived as a pareidolic soundworld where each player can imagine their own world and will throughout.
Deadly Structures is created using the Unreal Engine and FMOD and is playable on Mac and PC with additional PS4 and XBOX controller support.
Presented by Grace Dent
Series Producer Leah Green
Sound Design and Mix for Series 1 & 2: Sami El-Enany
Produced by The Guardian
Comfort Eating with Grace Dent | Lifeandstyle | The Guardian
Have you ever wondered what famous people actually eat? In our new podcast, Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent does just that, asking well-known guests to lift the lid on the food they turn to when they’re at home alone – and what comfort foods have seen them through their lives.
Presented by Grace Dent
Series Producer Leah Green
Sound Design and Mix for Series 1 & 2: Sami El-Enany
Produced by The Guardian
Comfort Eating with Grace Dent | Lifeandstyle | The Guardian
Have you ever wondered what famous people actually eat? In our new podcast, Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent does just that, asking well-known guests to lift the lid on the food they turn to when they’re at home alone – and what comfort foods have seen them through their lives.
Cast:
E***... E.M. Williams
RON... Richard Cant
GIGI DERRIERE... Travis Alabanza
Writer: Lettie Precious
Director: Anthony Simpson-Pike
Sound Design & Mix: Nicholas Alexander and Sami El-Enany
Producer: Matt Trueman
Additional production: Robbie MacInnes
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 - Drama, Road to Heaven
E***’s adolescent years are a bleak existence of abuse at home and bullying at school. But after they read an extraordinary novella called Sphinx, their eyes are opened to their own identity and to an overpowering new world - gay clubs.
Anne Garretta’s ground breaking novella, Sphinx, is the world’s first genderless love story and serves as the inspiration for this extraordinary story of self discovery and self acceptance. The journey of our anonymous protagonist, E***, closely reflects the story of this play’s author, Lettie Precious, who found their own path to Heaven in similar circumstances.
Cast:
E***... E.M. Williams
RON... Richard Cant
GIGI DERRIERE... Travis Alabanza
Writer: Lettie Precious
Director: Anthony Simpson-Pike
Sound Design & Mix: Nicholas Alexander and Sami El-Enany
Producer: Matt Trueman
Additional production: Robbie MacInnes
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 - Drama, Road to Heaven
E***’s adolescent years are a bleak existence of abuse at home and bullying at school. But after they read an extraordinary novella called Sphinx, their eyes are opened to their own identity and to an overpowering new world - gay clubs.
Anne Garretta’s ground breaking novella, Sphinx, is the world’s first genderless love story and serves as the inspiration for this extraordinary story of self discovery and self acceptance. The journey of our anonymous protagonist, E***, closely reflects the story of this play’s author, Lettie Precious, who found their own path to Heaven in similar circumstances.
Produced by Anagram
Written by May Abdalla
Sound and Music by Chu-Li Shewring and Sami El-Enany
Editing: Sami El-Enany
IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Experience, Amsterdam
19th - 28th November 2021
Messages to a Post Human Earth (DocLab Live: Liminal Systems) Live Event, Amsterdam
23th November 2021
Messages to a Post Human Earth is an interactive, multi-sensorial journey for two people to do together. You and your partner will embark on an evocative audio journey featuring augmented reality (AR), to reimagine your relationship with the natural world.
The story explores the work of Monica Gagliano and an essay by science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, which he wrote for the Human Interference Task Force in the 1980s. Lem’s essay was written in response to a request for ideas of what to do with nuclear waste and it’s incredibly long life span; he suggested encoding messages into the DNA of plants. Gagliano is well known for her research into plant intelligence and the behaviours that demonstrate memory by the Mimosa plant.
Designed for two people to experience together, you will be provided with a special device and props before being sent off to explore the natural world; a hearing, living thing, sensorially alert like you.
You and your partner’s short journeys are different but will work in synchronicity with the other. Like a symbolic choreography, both of your actions become a performance for the other.
Invisible to the naked eye, the audio narration and AR content comes to life to invite musing on the living environment and a future world in which humans will no longer be present.
Produced by Anagram
Written by May Abdalla
Sound and Music by Chu-Li Shewring and Sami El-Enany
Editing: Sami El-Enany
IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Experience, Amsterdam
19th - 28th November 2021
Messages to a Post Human Earth (DocLab Live: Liminal Systems) Live Event, Amsterdam
23th November 2021
Messages to a Post Human Earth is an interactive, multi-sensorial journey for two people to do together. You and your partner will embark on an evocative audio journey featuring augmented reality (AR), to reimagine your relationship with the natural world.
The story explores the work of Monica Gagliano and an essay by science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, which he wrote for the Human Interference Task Force in the 1980s. Lem’s essay was written in response to a request for ideas of what to do with nuclear waste and it’s incredibly long life span; he suggested encoding messages into the DNA of plants. Gagliano is well known for her research into plant intelligence and the behaviours that demonstrate memory by the Mimosa plant.
Designed for two people to experience together, you will be provided with a special device and props before being sent off to explore the natural world; a hearing, living thing, sensorially alert like you.
You and your partner’s short journeys are different but will work in synchronicity with the other. Like a symbolic choreography, both of your actions become a performance for the other.
Invisible to the naked eye, the audio narration and AR content comes to life to invite musing on the living environment and a future world in which humans will no longer be present.
-WINNER: Best Radio Drama, Grand Prix Nova 2023-
-NOMINATION: Best Sound Fiction, Phonurgia 2022-
-NOMINATION: Best Use of Sound, BBC Drama Awards 2021-
Written, Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
Owlman performed by Joe Winnsmith
String necklace performed by David Denyer
Birdsong performed by Jessica Winter
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3
Part tone poem and part narrative reimagining of Remedios Varo’s painting of the same name, Creation of the Birds by Sami El-Enany is a fantastical exploration of the metamorphosis from an abstract idea to a finished artwork. Varo’s painting depicts an anthropomorphic owl sitting at a desk, drawing a series of birds. After being drawn, the birds are imbued with starlight refracted from a magnifying lens in the owl’s other hand and come to life, taking flight out of a window into the night.
El-Enany chose to focus on three main aspects for his Creation of the Birds, the Owl as the creator, their tool - the string instrument brush that hangs from their neck, and the birds that are worked into existence. El-Enany sent a microphone to Joe Winnsmith, an avid conservationist and bird enthusiast in a small village in Scotland, to play the part of the Owl. Together, Winnsmith and El-Enany devised a system of personifying and biographing the birds that would be conjured to life by the Owl. For the magical stringed instrument, El-Enany decided to use an entirely custom-tuned and prepared hammered dulcimer to create a unique sound that would not be recognisable as any known string instrument to a listener. With violinist David Denyer, he created a palette of improvised bowing, plucking and hammering techniques to embody the characteristics of the birds. Finally, for the birds themselves, El-Enany slowed down field recordings of birds to allow them to be 'mimicked' by a human voice. Working with vocalist Jessica Winter, the recording of the human voice is then sped up to create the sense that these birds were being ushered from a metaphysical plane into our world, no longer immaterial, now palpable and real.
El-Enany’s Creation of the Birds is a look at the private life of an artist, the origins of inspiration, and an ode to the personalities of beautiful birds and the landscapes they inhabit. The piece is in three movements - The Skylark, The Oystercatcher and The Blackbird.
-WINNER: Best Radio Drama, Grand Prix Nova 2023-
-NOMINATION: Best Sound Fiction, Phonurgia 2022-
-NOMINATION: Best Use of Sound, BBC Drama Awards 2021-
Written, Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
Owlman performed by Joe Winnsmith
String necklace performed by David Denyer
Birdsong performed by Jessica Winter
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3
Part tone poem and part narrative reimagining of Remedios Varo’s painting of the same name, Creation of the Birds by Sami El-Enany is a fantastical exploration of the metamorphosis from an abstract idea to a finished artwork. Varo’s painting depicts an anthropomorphic owl sitting at a desk, drawing a series of birds. After being drawn, the birds are imbued with starlight refracted from a magnifying lens in the owl’s other hand and come to life, taking flight out of a window into the night.
El-Enany chose to focus on three main aspects for his Creation of the Birds, the Owl as the creator, their tool - the string instrument brush that hangs from their neck, and the birds that are worked into existence. El-Enany sent a microphone to Joe Winnsmith, an avid conservationist and bird enthusiast in a small village in Scotland, to play the part of the Owl. Together, Winnsmith and El-Enany devised a system of personifying and biographing the birds that would be conjured to life by the Owl. For the magical stringed instrument, El-Enany decided to use an entirely custom-tuned and prepared hammered dulcimer to create a unique sound that would not be recognisable as any known string instrument to a listener. With violinist David Denyer, he created a palette of improvised bowing, plucking and hammering techniques to embody the characteristics of the birds. Finally, for the birds themselves, El-Enany slowed down field recordings of birds to allow them to be 'mimicked' by a human voice. Working with vocalist Jessica Winter, the recording of the human voice is then sped up to create the sense that these birds were being ushered from a metaphysical plane into our world, no longer immaterial, now palpable and real.
El-Enany’s Creation of the Birds is a look at the private life of an artist, the origins of inspiration, and an ode to the personalities of beautiful birds and the landscapes they inhabit. The piece is in three movements - The Skylark, The Oystercatcher and The Blackbird.
Emerging from a desolate landscape, a woman ascends to an alter where she conjures strange entities through ritual magic.
Her first incantation calls forth the totemic horse. Now bestowed with wings, the horse takes flight immediately, unwilling to abide by any other’s will, they are freed into the world.
Next, the caster arranges her ingredients on the alter, readying herself for the second summoning. The woman’s voice, transcendent and impassive, goads the hyena into the world. feral and fluctuant, the human-animal hybrid makes a mockery of decorum. Her call: both taunting and tantalising, her wildness: a virtue.
The ritual deepens, the caster now enacts both somatic and verbal components in her spell while a liquid within an egg-shaped cauldron begins to bubble. The vessel transforms, more egg now than pot, spewing shrouded visages, an open red mouth, a protruding tongue, carrion-feasting chicks. The scavengers of death are given life, the shapeless caster is reborn.
Both fantastic and believable, playful and cryptic, A Summoning is a sonic narrative inspired by the iconography and visual storytelling found in the paintings of Leonora Carrington. A Summoning is inhabited by some of Carrington’s most treasured beasts.
Leonora Carrington, Self-Portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse),1937-1938
Emerging from a desolate landscape, a woman ascends to an alter where she conjures strange entities through ritual magic.
Her first incantation calls forth the totemic horse. Now bestowed with wings, the horse takes flight immediately, unwilling to abide by any other’s will, they are freed into the world.
Next, the caster arranges her ingredients on the alter, readying herself for the second summoning. The woman’s voice, transcendent and impassive, goads the hyena into the world. feral and fluctuant, the human-animal hybrid makes a mockery of decorum. Her call: both taunting and tantalising, her wildness: a virtue.
The ritual deepens, the caster now enacts both somatic and verbal components in her spell while a liquid within an egg-shaped cauldron begins to bubble. The vessel transforms, more egg now than pot, spewing shrouded visages, an open red mouth, a protruding tongue, carrion-feasting chicks. The scavengers of death are given life, the shapeless caster is reborn.
Both fantastic and believable, playful and cryptic, A Summoning is a sonic narrative inspired by the iconography and visual storytelling found in the paintings of Leonora Carrington. A Summoning is inhabited by some of Carrington’s most treasured beasts.
Leonora Carrington, Self-Portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse),1937-1938
Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
A Falling Tree Production for 'Short Cuts' for the episode 'Silence'.
First broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday 18th May 2021
'The Inaudible Spectrum' is made entirely from a process of bringing sounds that are authentically outside of the range of human hearing within it. It seeks to question the notion of silence and sound through dismantling human-centric forms of perception and allowing listeners to perceive aspects of reality that are usually inaccessible.
All sounds are first-hand field recordings from around the world and include:
-Recordings of bats made in Senegal using a supersonic microphone
-Faint atmospheric events in VLF radio bands captured with magnetic antenna
-Extremely faint vibrations in material and soil, recorded using a geophone.
-Pitch shifting subsonic and supersonic information recorded at extremely high sample rates.
First heard on Falling Tree Production's 'Short Cuts: Silence' broadcast on Radio 4 on Tue 18 May 2021.
Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany
A Falling Tree Production for 'Short Cuts' for the episode 'Silence'.
First broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday 18th May 2021
'The Inaudible Spectrum' is made entirely from a process of bringing sounds that are authentically outside of the range of human hearing within it. It seeks to question the notion of silence and sound through dismantling human-centric forms of perception and allowing listeners to perceive aspects of reality that are usually inaccessible.
All sounds are first-hand field recordings from around the world and include:
-Recordings of bats made in Senegal using a supersonic microphone
-Faint atmospheric events in VLF radio bands captured with magnetic antenna
-Extremely faint vibrations in material and soil, recorded using a geophone.
-Pitch shifting subsonic and supersonic information recorded at extremely high sample rates.
First heard on Falling Tree Production's 'Short Cuts: Silence' broadcast on Radio 4 on Tue 18 May 2021.
Narrated by Nesrine Malik
Producer: Katherine Godfrey⠀
Sound Design: Sami El-Enany
Executive Producer: Steven Rajam
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4
In 1981, the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said published a book that examined how ideas of Islam are disseminated in the western news media by commentators and experts. It was called Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World.
Forty years on, columnist and author Nesrine Malik examines how Said's ideas - and the responses to them - stack up. Through his blistering public lectures and interviews, we hear not only Said’s irrepressible erudition and his humour but the prescience of Said’s ideas today - ones that speak to questions of identity and coexistence.
Covering Islam emerged from Said’s observations of the western media’s coverage of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Reflecting later, Said said the media's 'arsenal of images' created an impression of "the utmost negative sort of evil emanation...as if the main business of Muslims was to threaten and try to kill Americans.” When he came to update Covering Islam 17 years later, after the Gulf War, Said believed the situation to be even worse.
Nesrine Malik explores how Said’s scholarship and public intellectualism sought to dismantle the idea of a “clash of civilisations” between ‘The West’ and ‘Islam’ through the 80s and 90s to his death in 2003 - and how these tropes have played out and twisted since. Nesrine also considers what Said’s ideas might offer us now, and how he might have dealt with social media and its dissemination of his ideas.
With contributions from Timothy Brennan, the author of the biography Places of Mind, a Life of Edward Said; D D Guttenplan, the editor of The Nation Magazine; Rizwana Hamid, the Director of the Muslim Council of Britain's Centre for Media Monitoring; and Asad Haider, on of the founding editors of Viewpoint magazine and the author of Mistaken Identity.
Narrated by Nesrine Malik
Producer: Katherine Godfrey⠀
Sound Design: Sami El-Enany
Executive Producer: Steven Rajam
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4
In 1981, the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said published a book that examined how ideas of Islam are disseminated in the western news media by commentators and experts. It was called Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World.
Forty years on, columnist and author Nesrine Malik examines how Said's ideas - and the responses to them - stack up. Through his blistering public lectures and interviews, we hear not only Said’s irrepressible erudition and his humour but the prescience of Said’s ideas today - ones that speak to questions of identity and coexistence.
Covering Islam emerged from Said’s observations of the western media’s coverage of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Reflecting later, Said said the media's 'arsenal of images' created an impression of "the utmost negative sort of evil emanation...as if the main business of Muslims was to threaten and try to kill Americans.” When he came to update Covering Islam 17 years later, after the Gulf War, Said believed the situation to be even worse.
Nesrine Malik explores how Said’s scholarship and public intellectualism sought to dismantle the idea of a “clash of civilisations” between ‘The West’ and ‘Islam’ through the 80s and 90s to his death in 2003 - and how these tropes have played out and twisted since. Nesrine also considers what Said’s ideas might offer us now, and how he might have dealt with social media and its dissemination of his ideas.
With contributions from Timothy Brennan, the author of the biography Places of Mind, a Life of Edward Said; D D Guttenplan, the editor of The Nation Magazine; Rizwana Hamid, the Director of the Muslim Council of Britain's Centre for Media Monitoring; and Asad Haider, on of the founding editors of Viewpoint magazine and the author of Mistaken Identity.
Ongoing work as Sound Designer
Hosted by Anushka Asthana and Rachel Humphreys, Today in Focus brings you closer to Guardian journalism. Combining personal storytelling with insightful analysis, this podcast takes you behind the headlines for a deeper understanding of the news, every weekday.
Ongoing work as Sound Designer
Hosted by Anushka Asthana and Rachel Humphreys, Today in Focus brings you closer to Guardian journalism. Combining personal storytelling with insightful analysis, this podcast takes you behind the headlines for a deeper understanding of the news, every weekday.
Directed and Produced by Helena Kardová
Animation by Steff Lee and Jack Ross
Music and Sound Design by Sami El-Enany
An animated film for Monocle X MFA Thailand
Directed and Produced by Helena Kardová
Animation by Steff Lee and Jack Ross
Music and Sound Design by Sami El-Enany
An animated film for Monocle X MFA Thailand
Bridget Riley, Shih-Li, 1975
The lines draw you in. They want to prepare you, in the utmost stillness, for the moment you can no longer see them. The colours shift and move before you, or is it within you? Your eyes begin to water as you begin to exist on the surface of your skin.
"The Mandjet" is a soundwork I made in response to the painting "Shih-Li" by Bridget Riley and was first heard on "The Gallery" episode of Short Cuts on Radio 4.
Shih-Li, for me, feels like a trip on board The Mandjet, one of the earliest mythological examples of a space travelling vessel, a solar ship that carried Ra across the sky each day.
Undulations of light cresting the bow - singing bowls and sinewaves, elapsing like waves without weight in an ever journeying arc...
Bridget Riley, Shih-Li, 1975
The lines draw you in. They want to prepare you, in the utmost stillness, for the moment you can no longer see them. The colours shift and move before you, or is it within you? Your eyes begin to water as you begin to exist on the surface of your skin.
"The Mandjet" is a soundwork I made in response to the painting "Shih-Li" by Bridget Riley and was first heard on "The Gallery" episode of Short Cuts on Radio 4.
Shih-Li, for me, feels like a trip on board The Mandjet, one of the earliest mythological examples of a space travelling vessel, a solar ship that carried Ra across the sky each day.
Undulations of light cresting the bow - singing bowls and sinewaves, elapsing like waves without weight in an ever journeying arc...
Written & Directed by Amartei Armar
Starring: Sydney Quartey & Kofi Dorve
Original Soundtrack Osei Korankye & Ernest “Ronaldo” Opoku
Sound Design and Sound Mix: Sami El-Enany
A third culture Ghanaian-American youth takes the taxi ride of his life in an attempt to catch a flight out of Accra leaving his country, ailing Grandfather, and deep rooted feelings of cultural displacement behind.
Written & Directed by Amartei Armar
Starring: Sydney Quartey & Kofi Dorve
Original Soundtrack Osei Korankye & Ernest “Ronaldo” Opoku
Sound Design and Sound Mix: Sami El-Enany
A third culture Ghanaian-American youth takes the taxi ride of his life in an attempt to catch a flight out of Accra leaving his country, ailing Grandfather, and deep rooted feelings of cultural displacement behind.
Concept & Choreography: Akram Khan
Dancers: Akram Khan and Natalia Osipova
Musicians: Nina Harries & Raaheel Husain
Poem: Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
Sound Design: Sami El-Enany
Two of the world’s most celebrated dancers, Akram Khan and Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova, perform together for the first time, using two great classical dance forms, ballet and kathak. This is a re-imagining of a duet from Khan’s critically acclaimed collaboration with Sylvie Guillem, Sacred Monsters. This powerful work is accompanied by double-bassist Nina Harries, singer Raaheel Husain, an original poem 'Do You Remember?' by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Kha and a sound design by Sami El-Enany.
Concept & Choreography: Akram Khan
Dancers: Akram Khan and Natalia Osipova
Musicians: Nina Harries & Raaheel Husain
Poem: Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
Sound Design: Sami El-Enany
Two of the world’s most celebrated dancers, Akram Khan and Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova, perform together for the first time, using two great classical dance forms, ballet and kathak. This is a re-imagining of a duet from Khan’s critically acclaimed collaboration with Sylvie Guillem, Sacred Monsters. This powerful work is accompanied by double-bassist Nina Harries, singer Raaheel Husain, an original poem 'Do You Remember?' by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Kha and a sound design by Sami El-Enany.
A film by Hugo Glendinning and Tilly Shiner
Original Score by Sami El-Enany
Produced by Sami El-Enany, Hugo Glendinning and Tilly Shiner
World premiere & live orchestral performance: KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Hannover September 24-25 2020.
A concert-film co-created by Tilly Shiner, Hugo Glendinning and Sami El-Enany.
London, Halloween 2019. Britain is on the verge of Brexit. Ludwig van Beethoven is in the city, or rather: his spirit. He is looking for justice. The Royal Philharmonic Society had commissioned the 9th Symphony from him, but fed him an insulting 50 dollars.
Accompanied by live music, the magically realistic concert-film tells the fictional story of Beethoven's journey to London. That night, the city is in a process of self-destruction. At sunset, Beethoven is pulled from the mud of the Thames. He staggers through the streets in madness, joining night owls, demonstrators and offenders. He drinks and smokes and is increasingly disgusted by his strenuous search for the Royal Philharmonic Society. They are musicians and artists who, despite his ragged appearance, give him hope that his legacy will live on: in Trafalgar Square, a grieving woman breathes the 'Ode to Joy', and on the banks of the Thames, the arrangement of a violin sonata sounds. Beethoven's nocturnal journey ends at dawn on the Thames, when the city awakens again. The music for the film seems to be a work by Beethoven, a ghost work composed and arranged by the British-Egyptian film composer Sami El-Enany, performed live by the Hanoverian musica assoluta.
A magical-realist documentary, a speculative ghost story, a concert, an improvised, slow-motion disaster movie.
A film by Hugo Glendinning and Tilly Shiner
Original Score by Sami El-Enany
Produced by Sami El-Enany, Hugo Glendinning and Tilly Shiner
World premiere & live orchestral performance: KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Hannover September 24-25 2020.
A concert-film co-created by Tilly Shiner, Hugo Glendinning and Sami El-Enany.
London, Halloween 2019. Britain is on the verge of Brexit. Ludwig van Beethoven is in the city, or rather: his spirit. He is looking for justice. The Royal Philharmonic Society had commissioned the 9th Symphony from him, but fed him an insulting 50 dollars.
Accompanied by live music, the magically realistic concert-film tells the fictional story of Beethoven's journey to London. That night, the city is in a process of self-destruction. At sunset, Beethoven is pulled from the mud of the Thames. He staggers through the streets in madness, joining night owls, demonstrators and offenders. He drinks and smokes and is increasingly disgusted by his strenuous search for the Royal Philharmonic Society. They are musicians and artists who, despite his ragged appearance, give him hope that his legacy will live on: in Trafalgar Square, a grieving woman breathes the 'Ode to Joy', and on the banks of the Thames, the arrangement of a violin sonata sounds. Beethoven's nocturnal journey ends at dawn on the Thames, when the city awakens again. The music for the film seems to be a work by Beethoven, a ghost work composed and arranged by the British-Egyptian film composer Sami El-Enany, performed live by the Hanoverian musica assoluta.
A magical-realist documentary, a speculative ghost story, a concert, an improvised, slow-motion disaster movie.