JASAD
Album Coming out
JASAD جَسَد (Arabic for “Body”) is the new album by Palestinian Nay virtuoso and percussionist Faris Ishaq, a breath-driven manifesto reimagining the Nay—a Middle Eastern flute with a 5,000-year history—as a contemporary, self-sustained acoustic landscape.
Performing the Nay alongside a leg-mounted frame drum, the JASAD setup was born from the Nay’s raw intensity. Made of reed cane, with no mouthpiece or mechanics, it responds solely to the player’s breath and intention, a quality celebrated in JASAD as living technology.
Faris creates an array of breath-led extended techniques and intricate rhythms, trading electronic effects for acoustic illusions, woven live with his soulful lyricism into an immersive, multi-layered acoustic solo.
Steeped from a young age in Dabke dance, he blends its earthy footwork with the rhythmic improvisational Nay tradition of Tashbib, shaping a synergy of Palestinian breath and culture. Infused with global jazz sensibilities, his original compositions move seamlessly between rich Arabic Maqam modalities and fierce, Coltrane-inspired arrangements, igniting an evolving dialogue between Tashbib and jazz.
JASAD rekindles the quiet dialogue between breath, body, and our surrounding living landscape in an increasingly digitised world. By weaving cultural memory with contemporary expression, it celebrates the Nay as a living artefact—rooted, evolving, and present.
In collaboration with PRS Foundation & AFAC
