Quartertones is a music podcast which hosts current Arab musicians from different geographies who play contemporary and modern music, including pop, rock, hip-hop, electronic, classical, among other genres. The guests are invited to talk about their work and play their music – whether live or recorded – in three segments. The audience gets a chance to listen to work from across the region and genres that is defining the scene in the region, and understand the music that these musicians and musicologists perform or study.
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Quartertones is a music podcast which hosts current Arab musicians from different geographies who play contemporary and modern music, including pop, rock, hip-hop, electronic, classical, among other genres. The guests are invited to talk about their work and play their music – whether live or recorded – in three segments. The audience gets a chance to listen to work from across the region and genres that is defining the scene in the region, and understand the music that these musicians and musicologists perform or study.
Layale Chaker at Habibi Festival 2025 With a Performance by Maii Waleed | Habibi Festival 2025
Quartertones | Music from the Arab World
1 hour 56 minutes 1 second
6 days ago
Layale Chaker at Habibi Festival 2025 With a Performance by Maii Waleed | Habibi Festival 2025
Habibi Festival is back for a fifth year with performances and talks on stage hosted by afikra, which we'll be releasing on our Quartertones series. Day 1 opens with a solo performance by Maii Waleed, an artist from Alexandria, Egypt, in her debut at Joe's Pub. She sings tracks from her previous EP, including "Neptune" and "Sama", and "Fashi" from her upcoming EP. Then violinist Layale Chaker takes the stage with her quintet, including a pianist, a drummer, a cellist and a double-bassist. She opened her set with a piece called "Anatomie of Titus – Fall of Rome". She discussed her album "Radio Afloat", which explores the sacred relationship between people and their land, and the grief and reverence that many Arab artists feel—especially in the diaspora—for this connection. She also mentioned her album "Inner Rhyme" inspired by the 12 meters in classical Arabic poetry. She shared that music, especially instrumental music, serves as a wordless art of suggestion, allowing listeners to attribute their own emotions to it. Chaker also performed a piece called "Southern Sky", inspired by a childhood memory of her village in southern Lebanon, near the border, and the starry nights she experienced there. Her final pieces were "Ocean to Ocean" which was inspired by a long poem by Ounsi el-Hajj, and "Nocturnal Backburn" that talks about native plants regrowing after a controlled fire. The performance is followed by a Q&A with Layale Chaker who explains that the violin was an instrument her mother chose for her, but one that has become an extension of herself.
Quartertones | Music from the Arab World
Quartertones is a music podcast which hosts current Arab musicians from different geographies who play contemporary and modern music, including pop, rock, hip-hop, electronic, classical, among other genres. The guests are invited to talk about their work and play their music – whether live or recorded – in three segments. The audience gets a chance to listen to work from across the region and genres that is defining the scene in the region, and understand the music that these musicians and musicologists perform or study.
