Khyam Allami
Khyam Allami is an Iraqi-British musician, composer, researcher and founder of Nawa Recordings.
His research focuses on tuning and microtonality, using the fundamentals of Arabic music to further develop experimental and contemporary sound.
Despite primarily being an Oud player, he plays a multitude of instruments. Performing in orchestras, metal, post-rock and progressive rock bands.
during the US/UK led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Allami felt out of touch with himself and his history. Because of this, in 2004 he began to study the Oud, arabic and iraqi music, later enrolling into a B.A. Ethnomusicology degree. after receiving scholarships he studied for a masters and furthered his research and Oud studies.
Releasing Resonance/Dissonance, Allami started to perform over Europe and Arabia. Since then, he has composed work for film, theatre and dance. Alongside creating sound installations such as Requiem for Opera North.
As somebody that is interested in other cultures scales, owning a Turkish baglama, I found his talk about tuning and microtonality interesting.
My favourite one of his projects is his collaboration with Counterpoint, creating Leimma. This online software allows the user to create scales using any frequency, and can also be outputted into midi.
Short piece I made using Leimma.
Alongside this project, he has Kawalees: part 1, where he performs a solo electroacoustic oud performance with an exaggeration on microsounds and gestures that are used on the oud. Kawalees part 2 explores a mix of acoustic and virtual microtonality, using a piano to deconstruct microtonal phrases and asynchronous repetitions using Leimma.