Karkhana and Rashad Becker w/Eli Keszler at Berghain Kantine / Monday, 07.11.2016

Combining some of the most innovative players from each of three cities (Beirut – Cairo – Istanbul), Karkhana met in Beirut for the first time in February 2014 with the very ambitious aim to bring together elements from the three major experimental music scenes of the area. The band’s music strives to create a unique musical blend combining free jazz and psychedelic with various shades of ethnic and traditional music, traces of shaabi, tarab…
Building on the multi-instrumental capacities of its members, the group tries to create an atmosphere full of surprises for both the listeners and the performers themselves, developing what could possibly be called a “Free Middle-Eastern Music”.

They recorded both live and in studio for Italian vinyl label Sagittarius.
The subsequent release “Live At Metro Al-Madina” has been described as: “One of the most powerful releases in the combined Qbico and Sagittarius A-Star catalogues. Imagine a cross between Kluster and Taj Mahal Travellers with a Middle Eastern feel” The Guardian

PAN artists Rashad Becker and Eli Keszler will embark their second European tour in November. These two avant garde composers and fluent improvisers have performed as a duo only twice before, at the Empty Gallery in Hong Kong and in New York, so expect new ground will be broken with each show.

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Eli Keszler is a composer, artist and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. He has released two acclaimed albums for PAN, and was last heard on record in collaboration with another estimable jammer, Oren Ambarchi, and in collaboration with Tony Conrad, Christian Wolff and Joe Mcphee amongst many others. Rashad Becker’s live sets evolve around the angle of `traditional music of notional species`, a semi-abstract synthetic narrative that proves appealing to a remarkably wide audience.
Collaboration between the visionary soundscaper and virtuoso percussionist is a mouth-watering prospect, we’re sure you’ll agree.