Invocation Echoes of Here History Began. Tracing the Re/Verberations of Halim El-Dabh

During this Sunday’s SAVVYZAAR session we continue to honor Halim El-Dabh by revisiting the INVOCATIONS of our project Here History Began. Tracing the Re/Verberations of Halim El-Dabh.

Last month, the multi-format project finally opened its exhibition doors, after a year of being postponed, with a day-long public programme hosted online which invited sound artists and practitioners to present their works and reflections in resonance with El-Dabh’s life, compositions, and legacy.

In this two-hour feature, we trace Halim El-Dabh through sonic explorations composed and performed by the artists Ali Hasan, Magda Mayas, Sofia Jernberg, and Mena Mark Hanna. With each artist, we explore a story that carries El-Dabh through time and history – commemorating his philosophical, musical, artistic, and sonorous research through the years and across geographies.

We listen to the voice of Kelly Krugman reading a text by Halim El-Dabh entitled “Zebola the Crocodile’s Vengeance”, ruminating on meditation, music, dance, and song in ritualistic healing ceremonies for women in Zaire, now known as Democratic Republic of Congo; Lili Somogyi reads ‘Halim El-Dabh’s Color Music Paintings, Artistic Statement’ on his experiences of synesthesia and its vital relation to his musical practice; Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung leads us into Halim El-Dabh’s work and its importance to musical canons that continuously neglect his name, considering El-Dabh’s prismatic philosophical approaches to music and its history.

The visual is of Emeka Ogboh’s sonic installation, part of the Here History Began exhibition, photographed by Raisa Galofre.