BAND BIO
Ishtirak is a multi-instrumentalist trio with a powerful, urgent sound, forged in the heart of Beirut. Their music is a live-wire fusion of synth-driven Acid Jazz, Arabic Maqam, Progressive Rock, and leftfield electronics, delivered with an explosive stage energy that resonates with artists like The Comet Is Coming, Maryam Saleh, and Taxi Kebab.
The band’s name, meaning “communication” or “participation” in Arabic, takes on a deeper resonance in Lebanon, where ishtirak refers to the precarious power cable connecting households to a privately-run generator—a lifeline in a failing state. This duality of creative connection and raw survival fuels their artistic identity.
Formed by drummer Dylan Greene, synthesist Samah Boulmona, and horn player/producer Jeremy Thal, Ishtirak’s essence is captured in their immersive live performances. Their compositions are bold, improvisation-born journeys, built on the interplay of live drums & percussion, an iconic Alpha Juno II synthesizer, French horn, melodica, and textured electronics.
Their acclaimed self-titled debut album (Thawra Records, 2024) was recorded in a single, sweltering weekend in a Beirut studio amidst total economic collapse and widespread blackouts. Each track was captured in fleeting moments of electricity, its length and sonic path dictated by the unpredictable power. This process forged a sound that is both a journal of a city in crisis and a thunderous declaration of creative resilience—a collective clap-back against the forces that seek to silence expression.
On stage, Ishtirak transforms this recording session intensity into a captivating and unifying experience. They are a sonic uprising, embodying the power of collaboration to persist, resist, and connect. The trio announces itself not just as a band, but as a charged circuit of musical communication, ready to power any room they play.
PRESS
“An amazing amalgam of Arabic eastern melody, modern jazz, and eletronic beat forgiing…khamsa amper is an astonishing piece!”
Cliver Craske Reverb Radio
“Mad sound, unlike one I have heard before”
Ross Allen, NTS UK
“Disarmingly beautiful and powerful music!”
Kenneth Lobo, DJ Mag
“From the explosive momentum established by the opening piece ‘mtallat’ to the beautiful valedictory lament of the f inal track ‘feels like leaving’, it’s totally addictive.”
Songlines Magazine
DEBUT ALBUM
LP CREDITS
Written and Composed by Samah Boulmona, Jeremy Thal & Dylan Greene at One Hertz Studios, in Beirut, Lebanon, 2021
Released on Thawra Records on May 6, 2024
Runtime 56:07
mtallat
issa viba
master wasentha
yalla bas
bubblehorn
khamsa amper
zubala
feels like leaving
Samah Boulmona - Lead Synthesizer
Dylan Greene - Drums & Percussion
Jeremy Thal - French Horn, Melodica, Synthesizers
Arranged & Produced by Jeremy Thal, Dylan Greene
Additional Production Etyen
Mixed by Etyen
Mastered by Conor Dalton
Artwork by Dylan Greene
FEATURED ON
Fake Lines: Sono Levant | حدود وهمية: أصوات بلاد الشام
BOOKING
henry@significantothers.world
EMAIL
ishtirakmusic@gmail.com
LABEL
Thawra Records
https://thawrarecords.bandcamp.com/
INDIVIDUAL BIOS
Jeremy Thal, Co-Founder & Artistic Director of Found Sound Nation, is a horn player, composer, and educator. He studied horn, ethnomusicology, and Chinese at Northwestern University, and continues to work as a performer, playing in major music festivals and obscure bookstores around the world. With fellow co-founder Chris Marianetti, Jeremy co-designed Found Sound Nation’s approach to socially-engaged music creation, and has co-led FSN projects in Haiti, Zimbabwe, New Orleans, Mexico, Indonesia, Italy, and Switzerland. Jeremy has served as a lead teaching artist at the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, running innovative music production workshops with incarcerated youth in New York City. A founder of ZeroBit Music, he composes and produces music for film, theater, web sites, and video games. As a horn player Jeremy has recorded and toured with indie rock heavyweights Jeff Mangum and The National, and leads his own band, Briars of North America.
Samah Boulmona is a self-taught accordion player, composer, and singer hailing from Chanay, Lebanon. Inspired by his father playing the Oud, he imitated traditional rhythms and Maqams (Classical Arabic music scales) at an early age using toy keyboards and fake plastic percussion. At the age of 20, Samah custom tuned his first accordion to access a wider range of scales and Maqams. In 2012, he ended up in Hamra, Beirut, where he would spend 8 years playing, singing, acting and composing songs for live cabaret shows, and collaborating with the country’s most renowned musicians. As an educator, Samah has led workshops for a number of non-profit organizations in Lebanon including Al Jana, Action For Hope, and other NGOs that engage with Syrian and Palestinian refugee communities. After OneBeat 2018, Samah directed the OneBeat Lebanon residency, recorded his first single, and composed a soundtrack for the documentary Kash Kash. Now living between Beirut and Rome, Samah now performs in a variety of bands and projects.
Dylan Hunter Chee Greene is an Asian Canadian American polymath. After studying percussion with Koo Nimo, Joseph Gramley and So Percussion, he began to work in New York City as a session drummer, dance accompanist, composer, percussionist, and educator. He has had numerous honors working closely with both mentors and artists he admired such as Shazad Ismaily, Elliot Cole, Christopher Botta, Mark Stuart, Isaac Hernandez, Mayram Saleh, So Percussion, Grammy Nominated A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra and counter tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, Bessie winning choreographers, Rebecca Lazier and Christopher Williams, MacArthur awardee, Matt Aucoin, and Peabody award winning podcast, Radiolab. With organizations such as Music Beyond Measure, Mark Morris Dance Center, and Decoda of Carnegie Hall, he has led percussion and audio-production workshops in highschools, prison-reform centers and orphanages. As a producer and composer, he now works on albums, museum installations, podcasts, and film scores such as Kash Kash without feathers we can’t live (winner of CPHDOX, First Steps Award, DOC NYC and more) between NYC, London, South Africa, Germany, Lebanon, and the Dominican Republic. He has been an artist in residence with Onebeat, MASS MoCA, Avolach Farm Institute, Oyoun Kultur Neudeken, and the Peabody Essex Museum.