EL KHAT *live

In the organizer's words:

El Khat take Yemeni melodies on homemade instruments into a funky, psychedelic future and us into ecstatically blissful trance states.

El Khat, the band founded in the garages and warehouses of Jaffa and now based in Berlin, is releasing its third album "Mute" this year after "Saadia Jefferson" (2019) and "Albat Alawi Op.99" (2022). The album belies its title, as it penetrates us with raw intensity. Skittering drums and horns, a jagged organ, hypnotic Yemeni melodies and unique DIY percussion and string instruments merge into an infectious, intoxicating soundscape. Sometimes wild and raw, sometimes lush and enveloping.

The idea for El Khat came from the self-taught multi-instrumentalist Eyal el Wahab. Growing up in the Jewish-Yemeni diaspora of Tel Aviv, he came across the compilation "Qat, Coffee & Qambus: Raw 45s from Yemen", quit his job as a cellist with the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra, learned Arabic, began to build instruments from found objects, as they were played in Yemen in the 1960s, and founded El Khat. Since then, the trio has been working on a collection of Arabic melodies of Yemeni origin. The driving force behind it is the desire for cultural exploration, fed by the migration experience of Yemeni Jews and the detachment from a country or a flag, with the heart and heritage of their music rooted in Yemen.

Her new album "Mute" explores distance and language - and their absence. It is about being expelled from one country and not being understood in another, being mute. The songs, says el Wahab, are about "relationships and the struggle to see two sides as a whole, not as something that ends in stupor and conflict." Sonically, it's a heady, retro-futuristic trip to el Wahab's Yemeni roots and back.

We are offering discounted tickets for this event to give people with smaller wallets access to culture. These contingents are limited and only available at TixforGigs. We trust in your self-assessment: If you can, book standard tickets and leave the discounted contingents to those who need to save a lot right now.