//EVENT
ARCHIVE
Uncovered from old shops and markets across the West Bank, this archive compiles vinyl records and tapes along with stories of their production, distribution and relevance to Palestinian history. Founder Mo’min Swaitat tells us about the origins of the project.
Palestinian Sound Archive ******
Palestinian Sound Archive is a celebration of music, spoken word and album artwork from historic Palestine, mainly from the 1960s – 1990s. It is part of Majazz Project, a Palestinian-led record label and research platform founded by actor, director and filmmaker Mo’min Swaitat in 2020.
Over several years, Swaitat amassed an extensive archive of cassettes and vinyl records from Palestine and beyond, spanning everything from field recordings of Bedouin weddings to revolutionary albums from the First and Second Intifadas, instrumental tracks, poetry, soul, folk songs and jazz. Many of these were acquired from a former record label in Swaitat’s hometown Jenin, in the north of the West Bank.
Palestinian Sound Archive was born out of the archive and is focused on sampling, remixing and reissuing vintage Palestinian and Arab albums, shedding new light on the richness and diversity of Palestinian and Arab cultural and musical heritage.
Swaitat comes from a long line of Bedouin musicians and storytellers, and the archive references his rootedness in music as a means of celebrating one’s culture and sense of belonging. He plays everything from jazz to funk, soul to dabke, field recordings to spoken word, and folk to electronic music from Palestine, the broader region and across the Global South.
This event explores archival practice as a decolonial methodology and act of resistance, through sharing archival sounds and images that preserve and document Palestinian heritage, culture and resistance.
This listening session features sounds from the Majazz Project, Paluestinian Sound Archive and friends, with merchandise on sale to support the project.
Mo’min Swaitat is a London-based Palestinian Bedouin actor, filmmaker, music producer, DJ and archivist from Jenin. He trained at the Freedom Theatre, Jenin and arthaus (formerly LISPA), London and Berlin, before moving to London.
He collaborated with the Arcola Theatre, Young Diorama Theatre, Rich Mix, Battersea Arts Centre, Albany Theatre Deptford, Theatre Temoin, Common Wealth Theatre, The Mosaic Rooms, Alserkal Avenue, Radio Alhara? and many others, working on solo and ensemble productions, with a focus on immersive, site-specific theatre and performances which blend storytelling, spoken word, music and movement.
His debut short film Stones in Hand – an experimental piece inspired by his family archive – premiered on Ma3azef earlier this year. Since 2018, he has been one of the associate artists and creative directors of Sarha Collective, a platform for underground artists from the SWANA region.
He is the founder of Majazz, an archive of vintage Palestinian and Arab vinyl and cassettes and a record label based at East London’s Finch Café, where he runs a residency programme where he has recently hosted artists such as Kamaal Williams, El Far3i and Beirut Groove Collective. He is this year’s Jerwood Arts grantee for the Live Work Fund.
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