FOLK SONGS FROM THE LEVANT X THE BEIRUT GROOVE COLLECTION

Folk Songs Form The Levant

Demi Garcia Sabat and Rafa Saga Salti

Demi is touring percussionist and drummer. He specialises in Flamenco, Jazz, Latin, and Arabic music. Born in Barcelona and based in London, he studied at The London College Of Music and trained with the Jazz legend Peter Erskine. He performed with an eclectic number of musicians and groups such as, Shirley Smart, Nicolas Meier, Ahmed Mukhtar, Nikki Yeoh, Lourdes Fernández Flamenco Company, London Symphony Orchestra, and The Budapest Cafe Orchestra. During the last few years, Demi has been branching out in new directions. Recent ventures include composition, arranging and music production.

Rafa is an aspiring vocalist. She’s haunted by world folk music and more so by Arabic folk music. Born in Damascus to a Palestinian family, she found her identity in the historical bio region of the Levant. While navigating artistic and poetic expression through various mediums, she attempts to employ Levantine, natural and cultural vocabulary. Although she has performed with local groups and musicians in Damascus, Beirut, and Stockholm, this will be her debut on a professional stage in London.

Beirut Groove Collective

Natalie Shooter and Ernesto Chahoud

Now entering its 14th year, the Beirut Groove Collective is a collective of vinyl DJs, crate diggers, music obsessives and artists. For over a decade, the BGC has thrown one of the SWANA region’s most popular underground clubnights in Beirut, the BGC All-Nighter, which has built an international reputation for its distinctive sound and attracted some of the world’s leading DJs, turntabalists, crate diggers and record collectors. In 2021, the collective brought their clubnights to London with sell-out monthly residencies in grassroots venues across the city, as well as guest appearances at festivals, clubs and community spaces around the world.

At their parties, the BGC plays obscure and underground clubbing records from the ‘60s-‘80s from the Middle East, Africa and around the world, an eclectic mix of Lebanese ‘60s Garage and Beat, Bellydance Psych, Arabic Disco, Latin Tarab, Armenian Estradayin, Ethiopian and Sudanese Jazz, Rare Soul and Funk, Psychedelia and much more.

The BGC was named in New York Magazine, as one of the ‘Top 15’ parties around the world and has been featured everywhere from The Guardian and Monocle Magazine to ARTE, the BBC, Time Out London and Vice.