Desert Session

Desert Session is a moving project aimed to join musicians and creating discussion on the refugees problem in the world. After experiences in Italy and in the Sahara that involved more than 30 musicians from all over Europe including the singers Mariem Hassan and Aziza Brahim, the musicians present a live show in which the density of the desert blues merges with the jazz, underground rock and the southern Italian folk music. Starting from reflections around the permanent condition of precariousness lived Saharawi refugees, the aim of Desert Session is to research the crossroads between music and pracariousness, between artistic expression and the inability to determine their own future, between selfdetermination and reliance and how all that is interacting with private and public cultural performance and on identity’s renewal. Through the workshop, residence, concerts, recordings, travels and interviews, Desert Session investigates on haul, the desert music language, its communicative power and the strength of the connection between music and solidarity. The Saharawi is an Arab-Berber people that lives in exile in a part of the Sahara called hammada (suffering) due to its extreme climate. Its music is called haul – in classic Arab it means terror – and for the Saharawi it evokes delight in the physical transmission of listening to music. The Saharawi people live in big tent cities thanks to humanitarian help. Throughout the years traditional music has become a fundamental instrument to communicate the injustice of their condition as refugees evolving in new and contemporary expressions. The new young generations of Saharawi represents a big un-expressed potential that risks the dispersion of its energy without the chance to build its future.