A restless artist, Abdullah Miniawy is far from complacent about the status he has acquired over the last decade. He has had albums praised by renowned institutions (NPR, Pitchfork, Wire, Quietus, etc.), a career in cinema (Alaeddine Slim’s Tlamess, which attracted attention), and recognition by the European Parliament as an agent of change living in the Schengen area. That matters little. What matters is the present.
In recent years, the present has been shaped by a trio, with trombonists Robinson Khoury and Jules Boittin, a collaboration that has taken the Egyptian composer, writer, and singer’s sonic perspective to new heights. The result is presented in Peacock Dreams, released in 2025, where jazz merges with drone, ideas of soundscapes are overturned by epic constructions of noise built on the mirage of concrete music and field recordings.
Western diplomatic will likes to look at this music as a bridge between West and East, as if an artist’s will only existed in merging, creating bridges, existing in modernity in this eternal balance of history that has the West as its pillar. Abdullah Miniawy leaps over this need to bring people together, obliterates tradition, and creates his own stage.
The strangeness—without exoticism—of Miniawy’s music exists because it tastes new, because the landscapes he constructs with Khoury and Boittin go beyond the boundaries with which we look at music. For example, what if this were not traditional, but just new? Because it is new. In Peacock Dreams, the three artists did not create music for acceptance, but a brave new world, without West or East, only what is. Miniawy’s voice rises above the noise, whether from the gray and indestructible landscapes that the trombonists construct, or from that paternalistic voice that makes us always look at this music as a consequence of something else. It is not. It is a force in its own right.
AS

Sibel is a Turkey-born, Lisbon-based singer, songwriter, and performer whose music blends the emotional depth of Anatolian folk with the raw energy of psychedelic rock and contemporary electronic production. As a Turkish woman artist, she brings a bold, expressive voice to today’s global music scene one that bridges tradition and innovation with striking authenticity.
Starting her musical journey in Istanbul’s renowned live music venues, Sibel cultivated a genre-defying vocal style rooted in the melodies and textures of her Anatolian heritage. Her sound is intense, poetic, and uncompromising moving between the spiritual and the political, the personal and the universal.
From 2023 to 2025, she was the lead vocalist of the international collective Al-Qasar (Glitterbeat/Wewantsounds), with whom she performed extensively across Australia, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia, and Portugal, appearing at major international festivals such as Sziget and WOMAD.
During this period, she also contributed to the band’s critically acclaimed recordings, most notably the Turkish-language reinterpretation of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” (released as Sibel & Al-Qasar), which received widespread international airplay on BBC Radio 3 (UK),KEXP and KCRW (USA) , RAI (ITALY), France Inter(France), Antena 3(Portugal),Best Fm(Turkey) and others.
After two impactful years with Al-Qasar, Sibel has stepped forward as a solo artist, making her voice and vision unmistakably her own. Her new project focuses on powerful, socially conscious themes including women’s rights, human rights, peace, and the urgent struggles of our time expressed through dynamic vocals, bold arrangements, and a commanding stage presence.