TootArd
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| free admission |
| Accessible for wheelchairs |
| Ground Floor, Schlüter Courtyard |
| Belongs to: Airing Out – Open Air in the Schlüter Courtyard |
TootArd (Arabic for strawberries) is a “quarter-tone electro-pop-duo” from Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. On their latest album, Migrant Birds, the busy brothers Hasan and Rami Nakhleh combine catchy hooks with traditional arabic melody lines to unleash a disco vortex that pays homage to the dance floors of the Middle East in the ’80s. Retro funk meets modern hi-sheen. But beneath the tingling beats lie somber sounds and lyrics about exile and statelessness.
The glittering hedonistic party atmosphere of the 80s of Cairo or Beirut, forms the mantle of the new album, but the true roots of this music lie much deeper, with musicians like keyboarder Magdi al-Husseini and Ihsan Al-Munzer, who were the first to introduce synthesizers to the classic Arabic style, taking Arabic music to new heights.