The Skirball Cultural Center presents a live performance by Israeli folk electronic trio A-WA on Sunday, September 25, at 8:00 p.m. A-WA (pronounced Ay-wa) is a band formed by three sisters who grew up in the small desert village of Shaharut in the southern Israeli Arava Valley. With enchanting voices and natural groove, the sisters combine Yemenite folk singing and electronic dance music. This past June, Rolling Stone named A-WA as one of the "10 New Artists You Need to Know."
The grandchildren of Yemenite Jews who immigrated to Israel in the late 1940s, A-WA takes a modern, dance-friendly approach to their ancestral folk music by blending it with hip-hop beats and catchy harmonies. After years of experimenting and recording new material in English, Hebrew, and Yemeni-Arabic for YouTube, the Haim sisters enlisted the help of Balkan Beat Box producer (and fellow Yemenite-Israeli) Tomer Yosef. Featuring signature fashion that combines urban aesthetics and traditional Middle Eastern garb, their 2015 music video for "Habib Galbi" ("Love Of My Heart") went viral in the Middle East and has since attracted more than four million views on YouTube.
Earlier this year, Rolling Stone praised A-WA's debut album, Habib Galbi, as "colorful" and "liberating". The album is inspired by traditional love and protest songs of Yemenite women, but as NPR notes, "Instead of earnestly reconstructing the music of their cultural ancestors, A-WA has catapulted this roots material into new terrain." A-WA's music also explores commonalities with their Arab neighbors, including language (the band usually sings in Yemeni-Arabic). With their refreshing and upbeat take on an ancient musical form, the Haim sisters break through cultural boundaries and bridge the Arab and Israeli worlds.
A-WA's concert is one of several performances slated for the Skirball's fall season. Other acclaimed musicians taking the stage at the Skirball in the coming months include: musician and poet Alicia Jo Rabins, presenting her indie-folk, art-pop song cycle "Girls in Trouble" (Thursday, September 22); Ethio-American singer-songwriter Meklit (Wednesday, October 5); synth-pop musician Seth Bogart and alt-electro artist Chela, performing as part of the opening night party for the Skirball's new exhibition Pop for the People: Roy Lichtenstein in L.A. (Friday, October 7); and legendary indie rock band Yo La Tengo, performing their original score to the
Sam Green film The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, in a special, one-night-only engagement. For more information about programs at the Skirball, visit skirball.org.
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