When people gathered at the AlJadidah district on Thursday evening for the opening performance of the AlUla Arts Festival, most had no idea what to expect.
The musical performance was obviously not going to be a conventional one. The carpeted stage was decked with stones, branches and peculiar electrical contraptions. A stone basin was set in the centre of the stage, filled with water and fitted with microphones. A table in the corner of the platform bore tiles of multicoloured fabrics that seemed straight out of a tailor’s collection of swatches.
In fact, the only objects on stage that hinted the performance would be a musical one was a table with a mixing board and synthesiser, as well as a sparse drum set, merely including a floor tom and a ride cymbal.
Those familiar with Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui’s oeuvre know his penchant for coaxing musicality from unlikely sources and collaborations, and his performance at AlUla Arts Festival was no different, serving as an opener both to the event, as well as his featured exhibition: Bayt Al-Hams, or The Whispering House in Arabic.
Performing alongside renowned French percussionist Toma Gouband, as well as students from music schools in AlUla, Atoui at once challenged formal concepts of music, while also evoking an appreciation of nature’s melodiousness.
The trickling sound of water, amplified and widened by reverb, kicked off the performance, and was soon accompanied by the sounds of tapping stones. Atoui, meanwhile, hunched over a synthesiser, which he says was the “first instrument I invented many years ago”, gesturing at its infrared sensors to generate sound. From the close distance, the tum and thud of frame drums were herd as students began slowly approaching the stage.
The rhythm was a sombre one, bringing to mind ancient rituals of burial and war. The performance, however, was not confined to this severity, capering towards more jovial ranges, as students began using other instruments that Atoui invented, including a pad coated with conductive ink and used to generate a deep, resonate bass. A concert of natural and synthesised timbres, the opening show underscored the relationship between humans and sound, as well as the primeval foundations of music.
The students, Atoui says, are all being trained as classical musicians, who at first may have been taken aback by his abstract philosophies of music. For the performance, they had to set aside everything they had studied about the formal structures of music, breaking free from scales, keys and time signatures.
“The students came from two different schools,” he says. “They were boys and girls from 10 to 12 years old. It was super, super nice working with them, because a subject like this can be quite abstract. They just recently started to learn classical music and traditional instruments. It was liberating, because all of a sudden, like, anything could become music. They were happy that they could improvise, that they didn’t need to read off a sheet and stick to a score. For the kids, it was very playful and fun.”
However, Atoui says despite the free form, there was one cardinal rule that he had set during the workshop sessions he held with the students. “There was only one mistake that you could do, which is not listen to the others,” he says.
Running until April 19, Atoui’s exhibition at AlUla Arts Festival gives visitors a chance to try their own hand at his instruments. One contraption features a chains dangling from a gyrating mechanism towards a cymbal. Through headphones, visitors can hear the nuances of how the brass resonates to the chain as well as to the human touch. Another installation offers the opportunity to try the conductive ink pad, using the body’s electricity to synthesise bass notes. Felt pads, meanwhile, generate sound based on the amount of pressure inflicted against them. The stone basin is also featured in the exhibition.
The instruments, Atoui says, were developed across the past decade, and will serve “as a starting point” to his long-term project at AlUla. The project, Al Ghasaq - The Dusk, builds upon Atoui’s musical ethos, fusing traditional and contemporary approaches to sound, performance and craftsmanship in AlUla. Al Ghasaq will culminate with an installation and composition that Atoui will create specifically for the collection of AlUla’s contemporary art museum.
Bayt Al Hams is a suggestion of what is to come, but more than that “it is an invitation to listen".
“In the sense that it's a generative work, you can spend a lot of time in it, and things are changing all the time and constantly shifting,” he says.
Atoui says that while he brought his own instruments, as well as organic materials such as stones from his collection in France, a large share of the materials used for the performance and the exhibition were locally sourced.
“I invited Toma, who has a sensibility towards this type of material and works with stones, branches and different organic materials, to go on walks in the valleys here and collect a bunch of stones that we used,” he says.
Atoui says he is looking towards developing a relationship with AlUla over the next three years, and is excited to see how the project will reflect on his experiences. His visits to the surrounding landscapes, he says, were “humbling".
“There's a deep respect to this past and there's a deep acknowledgement to it,” he says. “What I'm also interested in is the place in the present and the people of the place you see.”
The stones, branches and organic materials from the landscape were pivotal to the performance and Bayt Al Hams, but more than that, Atoui says he was excited to kick off his time in AlUla with a collaboration with the local community. “The minerality of the place came into play, of course, but it was really about making the people and the human being central.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (All UAE kick-off times)
Borussia Dortmund v Eintracht Frankfurt (11.30pm)
Saturday
Union Berlin v Bayer Leverkusen (6.30pm)
FA Augsburg v SC Freiburg (6.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Werder Bremen (6.30pm)
SC Paderborn v Hertha Berlin (6.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Wolfsburg (6.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Borussia Monchengladbach (9.30pm)
Sunday
Cologne v Bayern Munich (6.30pm)
Mainz v FC Schalke (9pm)
More on Quran memorisation:
Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Porsche Macan T: The Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 265hp from 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,800-4,500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Speed: 0-100kph in 6.2sec
Top speed: 232kph
Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
On sale: May or June
Price: From Dh259,900
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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8 traditional Jamaican dishes to try at Kingston 21
- Trench Town Rock: Jamaican-style curry goat served in a pastry basket with a carrot and potato garnish
- Rock Steady Jerk Chicken: chicken marinated for 24 hours and slow-cooked on the grill
- Mento Oxtail: flavoured oxtail stewed for five hours with herbs
- Ackee and salt fish: the national dish of Jamaica makes for a hearty breakfast
- Jamaican porridge: another breakfast favourite, can be made with peanut, cornmeal, banana and plantain
- Jamaican beef patty: a pastry with ground beef filling
- Hellshire Pon di Beach: Fresh fish with pickles
- Out of Many: traditional sweet potato pudding
Results:
5pm: Handicap (PA) | Dh80,000 | 1,600 metres
Winner: Dasan Da, Saeed Al Mazrooei (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: AF Saabah, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Handicap (PA) | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: Mukaram, Pat Cosgrave, Eric Lemartinel
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) | Dh80,000 | 2,200m
Winner: MH Tawag, Richard Mullen, Elise Jeanne
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) | Dh70,000 | 1,400m
Winner: RB Inferno, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) | Dh100,000 | 1,600m
Winner: Juthoor, Jim Crowley, Erwan Charpy
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
The Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize
This year’s winners of the US$4 million Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize will be recognised and rewarded in Abu Dhabi on January 15 as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainable Week, which runs in the capital from January 13 to 20.
From solutions to life-changing technologies, the aim is to discover innovative breakthroughs to create a new and sustainable energy future.
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Sri Lanka's T20I squad
Thisara Perera (captain), Dilshan Munaweera, Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Ashan Priyanjan, Mahela Udawatte, Dasun Shanaka, Sachith Pathirana, Vikum Sanjaya, Lahiru Gamage, Seekkuge Prasanna, Vishwa Fernando, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay and Chathuranga de Silva.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
