In conversation with Ibtisam Barakat and Tamam el-Akhal about “The Lilac Girl”

 

Ibtisam Barakat (first from left to right), Tamam el-Akhal (second)

In conversation with the Palestinian-American author, educator, poet and translator Ibtisam Barakat and the emblematic Palestinian painter Tamam el-Akhal on the occasion of the release of the illustrated book The Lilac Girl in Greek.

Inspired by the renowned artist’s life and work, The Lilac Girl is written by Ibtisam Barakat and illustrated by Sinan Hallak.

Ibtisam Barakat: “The healing of others is a healing of ourselves too”

Inspired by the forced expatriation of the emblematic Palestinian painter Tamam el-Akhal from Jaffa due to the Nakba and her yearning for return, The Lilac Girl is an evocative, subtly political illustrated book addressed to children and adults.

When did you first come across her artistic work, when did you first meet her in person and what were your initial impressions of her as a person and an artist?

I first saw the paintings of her brilliant husband Ismail Shammout. I was in awe at his great art and talent, so I began searching about his other works and his life too.

Then I found out that he is married to an artist, Tamam el-Akhal, and began to investigate her work.

I saw that her art is great as well. I had a feeling that the fact that he is male and she is female has played a role in his art gaining more fame.

I met Tamam in person in Jordan upon the release of the Lilac Girl. Before that I spoke with her on the phone to see if she likes the story and feels that it’s true to the spirit of her experience.

Given the fact that you also moved to another country -in your case the USA- when you were young, albeit not in a forced manner, do you share Ms el-Akhal’s grief over the loss/occupation of a homeland and the yearning for return?

In the presence of the genocidal colonialism and the great injustice that is forced upon the Palestinians as a daily reality, all Palestinians move to other countries in a forced manner.

Some can move physically, some only “migrate” inward and gate themselves, some become depressed in the absence of any freedom, some become sick, and some break the cages in innovative ways.

Colonialism is violent and inhumane and that way it also forces innovation in expressing humanity. But to move somehow, actually or creatively, visibly or invisibly, and respond, is a must.

I moved to the US because I did not want to live in a war zone and in a country that targeted my life and my people’s life for destruction on a daily basis.

The Nakba never stopped. It only changed forms and is not often in the media. But if you look at Palestinian lives from year to year, you know the Nakba is going on unstopped for more than 73 years so far.

And the Nakba itself is the continuation of the Holocaust that took place against Jews in Europe.

The players changed, the name changed, the actual attempt of a group to destroy another group to have dominance and a “pure” presence as much as possible continues.

Some Jewish thinkers and activists acknowledge this reality too. I am grateful to them and their integrity. The Holocaust took at least 6 million losses of lives for the Jews before it was stopped.

For us Palestinians the Holocaust has taken so far 73 years of untold number of losses and has not been stopped. It’s an issue pertaining to the global forces that play with entire peoples’ lives.

Humanity has a long road to heal from the low-level consciousness that creates the reality of ongoing injustice for various groups, while others only either benefit from the abuse or just watch it.

Tamam el-Akhal, first oil on canvas

In previous years you have published two volumes in the format of personal memoirs chronicling your childhood and adolescence in Ramallah, Palestine. Why did you choose the format of an illustrated book in The Lilac Girl’s case?

I did not initiate the project myself. In 2019, Tamer Institute for Community Education put out a call for authors to write illustrated books inspired by Palestinian artists. I had not heard of the call because I live in America.

But they sent me a personal invitation. I read the invitation, and responded with a “yes” the very same day. Then I sat with myself for a deep soul search as to how to proceed, and I wrote the The Lilac Girl in one day. I cried from the first word to the last.

I then wrote another book, inspired by another Palestinian artist who specializes ceramics, Vera Tamari.

When all was published, I discovered that the end product that Tamer Institute published, was four books about four Palestinian artists, and two of the books were my books.

One about Tamam, The Lilac Girl, and the other about Vera, The Jar that Became a Galaxy.

Your collaboration with Sinan Hallak on this was of crucial importance. Has it been a joint venture or did you work separately?

Sinan Hallak is a Lebanese illustrator and I am a Palestinian author. Sinan did a great job on the project. I like it that the text is spare and the art is spare too. This has resulted in an elegant book.

We worked separately and the completed story came first. Tamer Institute chose the artist after they got the completed book.

There was a committee that gave comments for adjusting the images and making them meet the Palestinian spirit and expression- for example, adding keys on the ground.

The keys symbolize all the keys Palestinians took with them when they were forced to flee their homes during the Nakba. Many still have their keys with them.

It’s wonderful that an illustrator who is not Palestinian can contribute in this beautiful way. I am thankful to everyone who helped in the production of the The Lilac Girl.

You are the founder of Write Your Life seminars, aimed at encouraging groups and individuals to turn life stories into literature. How do these seminars operate?

Many people dream of writing their life stories but they don’t know how, and doubt that their stories are important.

In the workshop I collaborate with the participants to reclaim the sense of the “unique” value of their voices and lives and that each person is as important as any other. The hierarchy of importance is fake.

Life needs every single atom in it, and humanity needs the expression of every human being always. At Write Your Life, we write as an expression of freedom and ownership of self and of a central place in the human story.

One issue we explore, for example, is how a person feels about their names. It’s surprising how complex a person’s relationship to their first or last name can be.

So, I will ask the readers of this interview here to engage this question:

Take a deep breath. Write your name on a piece of paper and hold your name in your hand. Look at your name for a minute and let it speak to you. What does your name want to say to you? Write that down.

I hope you enjoy this beginning of the Write Your Life workshop.

Have they been an eye-opening, therapeutic experience for their participants?

They are powerful and healing experiences. When a person moves from silence to speaking, from hiding to shining, from despair to hoping, from ignoring self to keen curiosity and love for self and life, the entire world changes.

I just led a workshop for 50 writers and interested people in Indonesia via Zoom platform. The excitement and aliveness could be felt.

People breathe better when they know they are valued, and reconnect with whom they are, and what their life stories are- essential and necessary.

The Lilac Girl is a big Palestinian breakthrough in how we finally can offer the Palestinian human, especially the child, a way to transcend the Nakba by means she or he possess, the great imagination and love of Palestine and our great human spirit.

No Nakba and no colonialism can ever destroy these.

The Lilac Girl was recently released in Greek by Strange Days, an eclectic co-operative publishing house based in Rethymno, Crete. What does its publication in Greek signify to you, and especially by a small, independent publisher?

I am thrilled about this translation by Strange Days. The Greek language is at the root of civilization as the Arabic language is. That these two languages meet in one of my books feels like a co-operative cross-cultural triumph.

I have never been to Crete, but now my words have. I feel great joy and I look forward to the day when I see in person that great part of our glorious planet.

Primarily against the public sentiment, consecutive Greek governments, regardless of political orientation, have upgraded/broadened the political and economic ties between the Greek and the Israeli state in recent years.

How do you assess this choice?

Our world at this time is experiencing a leadership crisis in all of the countries, East, West, South and North. Decisions are made that don’t further the course of humanity on a more just, healing, and wiser path.

That’s alright, though. I have a deep belief that the time will come and humanity as a collective will discover a cure for “injustice” like we are striving to find a cure for Covid-19.

It’s our destiny as a species to learn more empathy as we go. That’s my belief and I work toward cultivating more empathy in my personal and professional worlds. With more empathy, we see that the healing of others is a healing of ourselves too.

According to your sister, as you write in your memoir Balcony on the Moon, Coming of Age in Palestine, “being Palestinian teaches you to be ready for any destiny.”

Looking back on your life and choices, have you ever had second thoughts about relocating to the USA?

I made the right decision to move to the USA, a country where I could heal my voice, and then begin helping in the healing of others through the creative and leading powerful art of speech and the written word.

Had I stayed in Palestine, I would not have accomplished what I have accomplished in America. I consider all of the planet my home and I love America as much as I love Palestine.

Someday, in my imagination, the Palestinians would give other people who need refuge a home in Palestine, and all would have equal rights and would be welcomed.

All nationalities in general, while they are organizing elements, should be of much lesser importance compared to humanity.

This is a one planet that needs to understand that what happens in the East affects directly what happens in the West, and vice versa, like a body. There is a wonderful unity to humanity and the universe at large.

Would you consider returning to Ramallah permanently or do you feel that your voice as a person of Palestinian origin is being heard/respected in the North-American public sphere?

Living in America as an immigrant is a very important human experience.

In America one can see new perspectives and can meet people from many backgrounds, and also can live in a culturally complex society, with all the good and all the problems of that too.

I would be so happy to live in Ramallah and Jerusalem, where I was born, permanently if the situation changed to one where living there is more of a constructive experience.

But wherever I live on the planet, I will aim to do work that helps to increase the freedom for all people, and to inspire towards more empathy and the beauty of courage and creativity.

Tamam el-Akhal: “I have always been drawn to express the Palestinian cause”

Being uprooted from your homeland -and especially when you know that the Israeli occupying forces prohibit you from returning to it as an inhabitant- is extremely painful. What do you most fondly recall from the pre-Nakba period?

I most fondly recall my doll that I made with my own hands as a child and I was attached to it, and wanted to take it with me, but I could not take it with me when we were rushed and forced at gunpoint on April 28, 1948.

Also, I used to make my own kites and fly them. That created trouble when the kite dipped into the hookah of the neighbor and ruined her afternoons.

I loved it when people were happy, like when the Palestinian leader Amin Al Husseini was announced to be coming: there were great festivities, and I loved those festivities.

I enjoyed seeing my people happy in Palestine. And I took that happiness into my paintings later on.

There weren’t many Palestinian -and Arab ones in general- female painters in your days- if at all. How do you interpret this fact? When did you become aware of your special talent?

True. There weren’t many if any female painters that I knew of at that time. I do not know why.

It was my father who discovered my talent and encouraged me initially when I was a child. Then, after the Nakba, a leading Lebanese poet encouraged my school principal to help me go to art school. That started my journey to a lifelong experience of art.

This talent started bearing fruits in Egypt, and was further nurtured when you met your late husband, Ismail Shammout, partner in life and art. Were you complementing each other, while evolving as artists?

Yes. Actually, Ismail’s proposal to me was: “What do you think if we become two wings of one bird that represents Palestine?” Even before we were married, we exhibited together as artists, traveled together and complemented each other in art and life.

Diverse, colorful and vibrant, your art is deeply rooted in the Palestinian heritage and cause. Has the preservation of memory -of people, places, events, moments- always been at the heart of your artistic, political and personal concerns?

I have always been drawn to express the Palestinian cause, life, feelings, experiences, aspirations, and especially the great feelings of joy and triumph in addition to the honest struggles.

I love music and the performing arts too and I transform the performance’s feelings into vibrant paintings. People enjoy this and can relate to these expressions in my paintings.

In the past you were politically affiliated with the PLO. Where do you stand politically at present?

Ismail and I were never affiliated with any political movement that did not represent the entire Palestinian people.

Ismail and I were close friends with the leaders of all political parties, but our cause was not any political party- only Palestine mattered to us, not this or that party. Art cannot be limited under political “umbrellas”.

Thanks to the recent publication of The Lilac Girl in Greek too, your art, life and personality have crossed boundaries and found their way to the Greek readers.

Are you happy about it?

Yes, very much. The Lilac Girl is a great work of art.

I am honored and thrilled that the book, written by the brilliant Palestinian author Ibtisam Barakat and illustrated by the talented Lebanese illustrator Sinan Hallak, is now published and is being translated into other languages around the world.

Have you traveled to Greece?

I have visited Greece three times, and I took my children there too. My family loves Greece. It’s beautiful and inspiring. Ismail and I exhibited artwork in Greece too.

You’re almost 87 but actually look much younger! Where do you owe this youthfulness and vitality? To painting?

I think this is due to the lifestyle that I have lived with all of its details. Also, the fact that I don’t use make up at all, only traditional Palestinian natural olive-oil based soap. It’s the only soap I have ever used. The results are clear!  

Where do you plan to have your work stored and exhibited when you will no longer be physically around?

I have three sons, and nine grandchildren. They will be the custodians of the artwork.

Our home in Palestine, the one I fled from in 1948, has just been turned into an art gallery for Israeli art. I think this is symbolic and I think to myself that it’s a preparation for my artwork to go home again. There will be a gallery ready!

I warmly thank Tamam el-Akhal for engaging with my questions and for personally selecting the photos of her paintings featured in the article, which represent different stages of her artistic evolution.

I also thank Ibtisam Barakat for translating my questions to Tamam el-Akhal into Arabic and then transcribing/translating her responses into English.

The central photo of the article comes from the book launch in Jordan and has been offered by Ibtisam Barakat.

The Lilac Girl is published in Greece by Strange Days.

Meegan Lee Ochs: “I wish my father’s songs were less relevant than they still are”

 

Meegan and Phil Ochs (Photo credit: Alice Ochs)

Only daughter of the great troubadour of politically engaged folk music Phil Ochs, Meegan Lee Ochs lovingly shares with us memories of her father, who committed suicide 45 years ago, on the 9^th of April of 1976.

You were only a teen when Phil Ochs, your father, committed suicide on the 9th of April, 1976. Could his death have been avoided or was he too determined/internally pressed?

I was 12 when my father died.

I lived with both of my parents until I was 2 ½, and then my mother and I moved to Mill Valley, California. My father moved to Los Angeles, California, and we visited both with my traveling to see him in LA, and his visiting me in Mill Valley.

My father suffered from a chemical imbalance that is now called Bi-Polar and at the time was called Manic Depression. Because I didn’t live with him, I didn’t experience the depression.

There were medications available, but they were not as fine-tuned as they are now. Lithium was prescribed at a much higher dose than was needed and had a reputation of taking away creativity.

From what I know, he had a prescription at the end of his life but had never taken it.

His creativity was his core, and I believe his fear of losing that was a price he was not willing to pay. He spoke about suicide frequently -not with me-, and there were concerns and many attempts to help from our family and his friends.

His father had been hospitalized for Manic Depression, and it seems clear that he inherited this from his father.

“What if” is a dangerous game for survivors of the suicide of a loved one. When I was 12, I thought if I had called him right before, I could have saved him.  The omnipotence of youth…

In retrospect, his decision does not seem to be a momentary thought.  It seems he was plagued with depression for most of his adult life.

He must have thought the only way to ensure that he would never suffer that deep depression again is if he were not here to experience it. I would give anything for him to have survived those years and could be with us still.

Losing a parent at such a tender age must have been devastating. How did you manage to come to terms with his loss and move on with your life on all levels?

My mother’s parents died when she was nine and 15. When my father died when I was 12, and my mother was struggling with drug addiction, I lived in fear of losing her as well. 

I’m grateful she was able to come out of drug addiction and live a productive life for another thirty years. Losing my father and nearly losing my mother involved my needing to have personal responsibility at a young age. 

I’m a silver linings person, so I see it as having made me self-reliant. Having his music and video of him helped me.

It is no replacement, but I literally have a documentary about my father made by Ken Bowser for my son to be able to know his grandfather much better than nearly any child whose grandparent dies before they are born.

Has your subsequent orientation, professional or political, been influenced, even subconsciously, by your relationship with your father or your memories of him?

For 28 years and counting I have been working at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU) as a fundraiser and event producer.

My father was a political folk singer, but he was also an organizer.

He was a founding member of the Yippies and engaged in various forms of protest including declaring the Vietnam war over and marching through the streets of New York letting people viscerally feel what ending the war could feel like.

There is no question that my life is infused with my father, his music, and his activism. The core belief that people should have equal opportunity and fighting against discrimination are in the fiber of my being.

My initial activism in high school was working with Planned Parenthood as a teen leader talking to peers about birth control access.

In my 20s, I was a volunteer fundraiser, raising funds for Central American Refugee organizations and traveling to El Salvador twice.

First on a fact-finding mission after five Jesuit priests were murdered and then when Ruben Zamora ran for public office in the early 1990s.

Of the many people that my father has guided into my life after his passing is Sean Penn. I met him when I was 19 and he was 23. He became like a brother to me, and I worked with him for three years, which was an amazing experience.

I joke that I attended “Penn University” because so many people I met through Sean have remained a part of my life and affected my work.

Though our dream of a film about my father have not been realized, it feels like the perfect time might actually be now.

Like my father, my adult life has been a mix of politics and entertainment. In 1992, I started working at the ACLU SoCal. I produced events including the Bill of Rights Awards.

In 1999, I created the ACLU’s online auction. Currently, I work on our annual Bill of Rights Awards, but most of my time is spent on auctions and sweepstakes and working with influencers to promote advocacy campaigns.

Many of my father’s friends have supported my work at the ACLU.

In the folk tradition of adapting songs to new circumstances, my father reimagined his song Here’s to the State of Mississippi as Here’s to the State of Richard Nixon.

Many years later, Tim Robbins and Eddie Vedder rewrote the song as Here’s to the State of George W. and I discreetly wanted someone to redo it again as Here’s to the State of Donald Trump.

“And the speeches of the President are the ravings of a clown” has never been truer than for the Florida retiree.

Did you appreciate and enjoy his music and overall attitude while he was still alive? Which are your favorite Phil Ochs’s albums and why?

Just so you know, mine are All the news that’s fit to sing and Pleasures of the harbor- original pristine vinyl copies!

I have enjoyed my father’s music since I was a child.  My understanding of his powerful and clever lyrics has evolved over the years, and with understanding I am even more grateful for how he used his creativity to make the world a more just place for all.

From my perspective, the storytelling throughout his career mirrors his evolution from a curious and patriot youth who loved storytelling to his awareness that challenging your government when it does not live up to the ideals it espouses is not only a right but a responsibility.

All the News That’s Fit to Sing has an overarching story.

From celebrating America beauty in Power and the Glory, the legacy of a troubadour in Bound for Glory, blind patriotism in One More Parade, tragedy of loss in Too Many Martyrs and the hope of What's That I Hear.

Pleasures of the Harbor as an album and a song are a creative departure and stunning in my view.

Crucifixion and Pleasures of the Harbor are both intricate and expressive stories told with an orchestral presentation and beautiful melodies.

Outside of a Small Circle of Friends is another favorite song and is also on that album.

I Ain't Marching Anymore became an anthem for the anti-war movement,

Draft Dodger Rag is a song I adore, and That Was the President is a beautiful tribute to Kennedy in addition to Crucifixion.

The way he introduced his songs was often as insightful as the songs he wrote.

In Concert features my favorite introduction was to his song Love me I’m a Liberal.

He describes liberals as a shady group, 10% to the left in the best of times and 10% to the right of center if it affects them personally. Both the lyrics of the song and the introduction paint a vivid challenge/criticism of much of his listening audience.

Asking them to look in the mirror and see if they are progressive on a convenient and surface level, or deeply committed to social justice and willing to do the work.

From this album, other favorites include Chords of Fame, Joe Hill, The War is Over and Changes, which was written about my mother Alice.

Rehearsals for Retirement contains possibly his most succinct lyric of all: “I am the masculine American Man, I Kill Therefore I Am.”

In September 2014, you announced that you were donating your father’s valuable archives to the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

What was included in those archives and why did you decide to donate them to the Woody Guthrie Center?

My father’s brother/my uncle Michael Ochs is an extraordinary man. He managed part of my father’s career and is solely responsible for caring for my father’s belongings.

In fact, he flew to rescue a moving truck my father abandoned and drove it to LA saving nearly everything that he did not archive himself.

The items I donated included my father’s yearly journals and countless notebooks that chronicled his adventures, thoughts, song ideas, newspaper clippings, lyric sheets, Broadside Magazines, and personal notes from those he admired including Pete Seeger.

His Gold Lame suit worn in at the Gunfight at Carnegie Hall concerts, Miranda, the wig manikin that inspired the song Miranda, countless photographs -many taken by Michael and my mother-, posters, correspondence etc.

The Woody Guthrie Center is the perfect home for his belongings. Their collections not only include Woody Guthrie’s amazing archive, but also highlight items from the full spectrum of folk artists.

The research archive and educational opportunities for students of all ages are priceless.

I’m grateful that they are now caring for my father’s belongings in their climate controlled archival storage, and in the artistic way they curate what is displayed at the center. 

Every decision I make is my imagined response he would have done himself.  I feel he is smiling up there somewhere at the thought of his belongings hanging out with Woody’s, Pete Seeger’s and others he admired.

Meegan Lee Ochs with her husband and their son

45 years after your father’s untimely death, what do you most miss of him both as a committed, politicized artist and a troubled human being? Do you feel that his musical legacy is still felt nowadays, in the US as well as abroad?

Personally, I would love for my father to have known my beloved husband Jay, my stepdaughter Cierra, who is a performer herself and my son Caiden.

As far as the challenges he faced through manic depression, it was devastating to him, and took him from me.

However, I believe that I inherited ADHD and Dyslexia from my father, as did my son. There are challenges in both, but I sincerely believe that in addition to distraction there is hyper focus, which informed his life and mine.

Dyslexia is a different way of processing information and much of what made him amazing was rooted in these differences.

The number of times I have been told in my life “nobody has ever thought of doing it that way before” is many.  That is another gift from my father.

My advocacy is my small way of continuing his work on social justice, and I would have loved to have shared that with him. I wish my father’s songs were less relevant than they still are. In the last four years they became even more so. 

Many generations have been inspired by my father’s music, which I am immensely proud of.

However, my hope is that the relevance of the songs diminishes over time, and that his dream of a fair and just world will be realized.

The reason I am working for the ACLU is that I wanted to work for the rights of those marginalized in our society including people of color, the LGBTQ community, women, and those living with a disability, as well as working to protect free speech, voting rights and access, workers’ rights, immigrant rights and prisoners’ rights.

I am so grateful to dedicate my life to this work. My father performed at the ACLU of Southern California’s Bill of Rights Dinner when I was 9. Who would have thought that I would end up producing that event for more than two decades?

Had he still been alive, which causes would he be fighting for, to your mind?

Though I don’t know if it would have been through song, I believe he would be uplifting economic justice, workers’ rights, and the effort to end voter suppression, gerrymandering, and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

I would like to warmly thank Meegan Lee Ochs for kindly sharing so many valuable memories and thoughts 45 years after the death of Phil Ochs, and also for providing the photographing material which illustrates the article.

Meegan Lee Ochs

Faten Kanaan: “I just make music I would want to hear”

 

Dexterously interweaving ambient, minimalist and electronic pop soundscapes, Brooklyn-based Faten Kanaan’s latest offering, A mythology of circles, is one of the most accomplished and thrilling releases of 2020 so far.

In conversation with Faten Kanaan.

A mythology of circles, your latest and -to me- most accomplished work to date, is a fluid, moving, nocturnal exploration of myths and myth-making. How did your fascination with myths develop over the years, ever since you were a child?

Thanks so much!

Living between Europe and the Middle East, as a child I was exposed to so much various folklore- I loved stories and storytelling.

Later, in my senior year of high school, in our “Theory of Knowledge” course for the International Baccalaureate, the teacher focused on Greek mythology and narrated the stories so well, they left quite an impression.

I later became interested in comparative mythology, from the writings of Vladimir Propp, to making my own connections, and seeing every country’s unique and rich folklore as a bonding thread in our shared human histories.

In university & graduate school my focus was on Fine Arts -Painting and Sculpture. Storytelling and mythology were often at the center of my work.

There are clear “echoes” of Terry Riley, Brian Eno and Wim Mertens in the album. Do you feel that your artistic endeavors lie at the crossroads of ambient, minimalist and electronic pop soundscapes?

I love all those artists’ work, and am drawn to music from different genres:

Film scores, minimalist composers, ambient drones, medieval rounds, French & Italian pop music from the 60s & 70s that my family listened to, Arabic music, industrial/ experimental music, and more.

I just make music I would want to hear, and don’t feel the need to make it fit any specific genre.

Which is the significance of the two choral parts used in this work?

The first time I used the VST sampled choir, I was surprised by how forlorn the voices sounded.  They were both emotive, yet quite cold.

Their attempt to sound real became an embodiment of our strange relationship with technological acceleration, an example of the “uncanny valley”, as a recent review of the album had aptly mentioned - in The Quietus, by Will Salmon.

Both in terms of overall structure and sound-wise, A mythology of circles resembles a soundtrack to an imaginary/non-existent film. What kind of films do you enjoy watching and what kind of film would be “invested” with such music?

I love cinema, film theory, and watching movies. Film scores were definitely a big influence on how I think about sound, and the importance of a narrative structure for me when composing.

Kieślowski, Tarkovsky, Akerman... It’s difficult to pin down any favorite directors- but these are a few. Film is such an incredible medium because every nuance matters. Every decision becomes part of a transformative journey for the audience.

The ability to tell a story and take someone from point A to point B in such a way is pure enchantment. I think of this when composing: of what story I’m trying to tell. What mood I’m trying to conjure.

But hopefully in a way that is mysterious enough to allow the listener to come up with their own imagery.

I would love to score films in the future and hope I can do so with the right projects.

It also feels very organic, very earthly. Is this due to your connection with nature?

Yes, I do have a very strong connection with nature. It’s part of our ancestry, our history, and our DNA. Perhaps having lived in the city for so long makes me yearn for it and romanticize it, but I try to spend as much time near greenery or water as I can.

Also, I started playing musical instruments well before I got into using synthesizers. My main instrument was the piano, but then I had dabblings with the cello, oud, harp, and guitar.

Experiencing the physicality of making sound resonate in different ways definitely affected how I approach electronic music.

As a listener, I experienced your album late at night with eyes closed and was induced into a trance-like state of mind. How do you relate with your audience?

Each track is a journey. A story. I think of what it means to me, and where I’d like it to take the listener- though their journey is ultimately their own. I’m glad it was an experience!

My recording process differs quite a bit from my live performances. 

In live sets I use a pedal looper, so that I can layer the sections live on stage.

In recordings, I play the entirety of each repeating harmony, sometimes for up to 6 or 7 minutes- to allow for natural drifts to happen. I notice the physicality of how it affects me. It becomes durational...

Sometimes I lose myself when repeating a melody, and the recording process does end up feeling trance-like: a whirling dervish, or a word sounding surreal from being repeated so often.

You’re based in Brooklyn. Is there an active cultural scene in the area nowadays?

I’m very grateful for the music community I’ve had here. It’s lovely to see artists -and engineers- genuinely supporting each other.

And thanks to the internet and globalism, it’s been great to see that people can connect from different places. One can be anywhere, as long as they can engage with a community and not live in a bubble of one’s own work.

With the pandemic of course, things have changed a bit.

Several of your albums and EPs have come out during autumn, and especially in November. Is this a coincidence? Or does autumn hold a special charm for you?

That’s quite insightful! Yes, I was born in September, and love the autumn. It seems like I’ve gotten into a seasonal rhythm with recording then mixing, and when the album is ready for release. Also, I’m not quite sure my music really fits as a summer ‘jam’!

To what extent has the Trump “era” -which is by no means over yet- affected you creatively, politically and socially? Do you expect any real change within the context of the forthcoming Biden administration?

I think the bigger political machine is quite larger than any one president, so I’m not sure what changes will happen, but I hope people keep speaking up for justice.

I’m definitely glad the last four years are coming to a close. It had been a scary and disappointing time -not just in the US-, to see the worst sides of humanity emboldened like this. It took us back too many steps, to say the least.

Do you plan to visit/play in Greece once the Covid-19 “dust” settles or is it absolutely impossible to program life activities at present?

I’d love to visit and play in Greece soon! I’m actually planning on moving back to Europe next year, which would make travels there a bit easier, but of course my plans are mostly hypothetical and on hold at the moment.

Day by day, but working towards some goals.

And finally, do we, as societies and individuals, need to create new myths and mythologies? What will be left after the Covid-19 “era” subsides?

Definitely! As far as our awareness goes, we only live once. Our perspective matters in how we experience life. Some situations are easier than others, but it’s important to at least try to live the best story possible. To respect other people’s stories.

As much loss and distress as Covid-19 may have brought, it has forced us to re-prioritize things in our lives, hopefully for a more sustainable future and positive legacy.

I would like to warmly thank Alice Gros of Fire Records for facilitating the communication with Faten Kanaan.

Faten Kanaan’s A mythology of circles is released by Fire Records.