Artist Spotlight: Alsarah & The Nubatones
Khartoum, or Elephant Trunk in Arabic, is the capital and largest city in Sudan, Africa, but this city goes much deeper than geographical prominence or cute aliases. This war-torn metropolis — home to one of the longest civil wars on record — continues to suffer extreme corruption, and where the story of the East-African Retro-Pop outfit, Alsarah & The Nubatones begins.
Now residing in one of the Northeast’s hottest of hotbeds, Brooklyn since 2004, Alsarah nearly feels at home and has been inspiring more than just a movement here and abroad. Most recently being featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, she was also featured on Nile Project‘s debut CD, Aswan, named in the Top 5 must hear international albums by NPR in 2014. But that apparently wasn’t enough, as Alsarah & The Nubatones continued to push the limits with their debut full-length, Silt (Wonderwheel Recordings, 2014), named one of NPR’s Top 5 International Music You Must Hear, yet again. Sometimes lightning strikes twice, but when it happens again for her third release, you know she has it bottled and well preserved as The Nubatones machine kept raging, and their most recent release titled, Manara (Wonderwheel Recordings, 2016), earned its proper place in the Top 10 World Albums by Boston Globe.
Alsarah is more than just the princess of Nubian pop and Sudanese retro, a beast of a singer-songwriter, and all around badass—she also strives to connect her craft across musical boundaries. Alsarah & The Nubatones had their latest releases reimagined and remixed by various acclaimed electronic producers in 2015’s Silt Remixed and 2017’s Manara Remixed (both via Wonderwheel Recordings). Between her clear grasp of space and time acrobatics, she manages to find moments in working with the Sudanese artist collective Refugee Club Productions on a variety of projects including the critically acclaimed documentary, “Beats of the Antonov.”
Raised in a household of human rights activists, and finding solace in bootleg Yemen recordings, Alsarah has always had an affinity for music and the human condition. She later went on to study ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, where she wrote her senior thesis on Sudanese Zār music. In 2010, after many dinner conversations about the cultural exchanges of Sudan and Egypt with percussionist, Rami El-Aasser of the Cafe Antarsia Ensemble, Alsarah & the Nubatones were nearly formed. In addition to Rami, the group would call upon the musical chops of Alsarah’s sister, Nahid, on backing vocals, French-born bassist, Mawuena Kodjovi, and Armenian-American oudist, Luthier Haig Manoukian — later replaced by Brandon Terzic after his passing — to round out the supporting cast.
In 2014 Alsarah & The Nubatones went on to release their debut EP, Soukura, and have since toured a cultural smorgasbord the likes of Hungary, Portugal, France, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Sweden, and Lithuania, among their current headquarters, the United States.
As one of the largest homes of Sudanese in the US—many escaping the Darfur Genocides—Portland, Maine has experienced an especially turbulent couple of years. Needless to say, we’re beyond stoked for Portland Ovations to be bringing us, Alsarah & The Nubatones in January 2019. Understatements aside, our refugee communities have faced massive hardships. What was once a consistent stream of refugee’s finding safe homes from persecution, war, or violence, has now come to a near trickle, significantly affecting separated families and children. Even programs designed to reunify families have been suspended in the last year; bringing into question the future of these workers as well as the families they support. What is already an incredibly long, expensive, and daunting process of screenings and interviews has been prolonged into indefinite. We’re eager for Alsarah to bring her movement, inspiration, hope, and humanity to our affected city.
Rad Plaid is thrilled to be partnering with Portland Ovations and Coffee By Design in hosting this groundbreaking, East-African Retro-Pop act, Alsarah & The Nubatones at Port City Music Hall on Thursday, January 17th, 2019. Tickets are now available, but I can’t promise that will be for much longer.
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