SHARJAH // Led Zeppelin, James Brown and Kool and the Gang are the sorts of musicians usually sampled by remix artists.
But the creators of an innovative work have found their inspiration in traditional Arab music recorded up to 100 years ago on 78rpm shellac discs.
This venerable style of music is being brought back to life and transformed by a multinational group of contemporary artists including hip-hop, pop, electronic, noise and improvisation performers.
And the result is set to extend the reach of Sharjah's arts initiatives all the way to New York.
The premiere of Visiting Tarab, an evening of music organised by the Lebanese sound artist Tarek Atoui, will take place in New York on November 5 as part of Performa 11, the world's largest visual art performance biennial. The work has been commissioned by the organisers in partnership with the Sharjah Art Foundation and there are plans to stage the work here in March.
Visiting Tarab contains elements taken by Mr Atoui and his fellow artists from the world's largest collection of classical Arab music.
The recordings are owned by Kamal Kassar, a collector who divides his time between Dubai and his home country, Lebanon.
The archive consists of fragile 78rpm records and studio tapes from between 1903 and 1950 and includes works by leading performers of the time such as Abdo Al Hamouli, Sami Al Shawwa and Youssef Al Manialawi.
"One of my sincere wishes is that through this experience young musicians and composers will relink with this tradition," said Mr Atoui, 31. "A mistake with music in the Middle East at the moment is that we are very much influenced by the West and are forgetting our traditions and heritage."
Mr Atoui studied music in France at the National Conservatory in Reims and has worked and performed in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Jordan, Singapore, Cambodia, France, Holland, Germany and Portugal. His discography includes Un-drum 1, 2 and 3.
The 17 musicians joining him for the New York premiere will include Uriel Barthelemi, Anti-Pop Consortium, Jonathan Butcher and DJ Spooky. The artists are using a variety of techniques in addition to sampling to create the five-hour work, and the line-up includes three singers.
"They are all musicians I have a lot of respect for," said Mr Atoui. "They are the people I used to listen to 10 years ago, so I'm really honoured to be surrounded by such giants of music."
The foundation's associate director, Judith Greer, said: "This is the first time an institution like the Sharjah Art Foundation has partnered with such a prestigious organisation as Performa to introduce a type of Arab music to an audience.
"It not only involves contemporary musicians but they are working with an archive of traditional Arab music, so it combines the old and the new in a quite extraordinary way.
"It's allowing young artists to get the kind of exposure they would never get if it was just an event here in the Middle East."
Ali Al Saloom, who writes The National's Ask Ali column, said: "In terms of having Arabic art at a contemporary showcase I think this is really great, it's beautiful to see. It's good to be able to reach out to Performa and be accepted by other artists."
Performa 11 is the fourth staging of the biennial and will run for three weeks from November 1. The Visiting Tarab premiere will take place at New York's SIR Stage 37 venue.
csimpson@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
WORLD CUP SEMI-FINALS
England v New Zealand (Saturday, 12pm)
Wales v South Africa (Sunday, 1pm)
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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