Mélange Oriental
Opening concert of the Sounding Jerusalem 2008 Festival

First performance June 15th 2008, Austrian Hospice, Jerusalem

Further perfomances:
REGIONALE 2008 Festival, Bad Gleichenberg / Austria. August 10th 2008
info: www.regionale08.at
read a concert review (Kronenzeitung/German only): review

Erich Oskar Hütter (A) / cello
Taiseer Elias (Israel) / oud
Stefan Heckel (A) / piano, sounds

A 30 mins performance guides the listener through the four quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem: Christian, Arabic, Armenian and Jewish. Musical pieces played by the trio are connected and juxtaposed by prerecorded sounds from the streets and sites of Jerusalem. Music from the age of Crusades and psalms blend into the hectic noises of the Arabic market (Suq). Arabic music meets the Muezzin. Armenian Orthodox chants and emigrant songs lead into jewish prayers from the wailing wall and Sephardic music. The concert hall becomes one with the surrounding city. The audience is left with the impression of an ever Sounding Jerusalem.

hear a few moments of the concert:
ZIKRAYATI
KRUNK

Idea: Erich Oskar Hütter (founder of the Sounding Jerusalem Festival)
Sound recordings, music research and arrangement: Stefan Heckel

more info on the Sounding Jerusalem Festival: soundingjerusalem.com