Louder than the Noise

Maha ElNabawi is a writer, music journalist, and content producer. She is a co-founder of Mada Masr. Her music writing has been featured in the Wire UK, The Guardian, Spex, The National UAE, Norient, and Mada Masr. She is also the co-creator of Katalog, an Arabic podcast featuring musicians from the MENA region.

Ziad Nawfal is a DJ, radio host, music promoter, and producer based in Beirut. He has spent the better part of the last 25 years exposing Lebanon and the wider world to unique local and regional independent music and artists via his long-running radio shows, Ruptures and Décalages, broadcasted on Radio-Lebanon 96.2 FM.

Maan Abu Taleb is the founding editor of Ma3azef.com, the Arab world's leading music magazine. His debut novel, All the Battles, was released to critical and popular praise in 2016 and appeared in an accomplished English translation the following year.

Palestine Underground by Boiler Room, 4:3 and Ma3azef documents the resilience of a burgeoning music scene undeterred and fuelled by political restrictions, building bridges through a shared sound and identity. For the past ten years, Palestinian music collective Jazar Crew have been fostering a vibrant party scene in Haifa, as an alternative to the mainstream club scene in Israel. Thanks to the internet, they've connected with artists in Ramallah, Palestine, and defied the separation wall to travel to the West Bank and organise events with Techno DJs Sama' and Oddz, and members of the tantalising hip hop and trap scene, the collectives Saleb Wahad and Bltnm. Palestine Underground follows a week in the life of these artists and friends, in the lead up to the first Boiler Room in Ramallah in June this year.

Zuli is a multi-instrumentalist/DJ/producer from Cairo, Egypt.

Born in Egypt, Heba Kadry grew up listening to early 90’s indie shoe gaze records whenever she could get her hands on them. After graduating from The American University in Cairo, she got her start in audio by composing jingles at the advertising agency, J Walter Thompson. After a two year stint in advertising, she moved to the US to pursue and study audio engineering at The Recording Workshop. Upon completing her studies, Heba moved to Houston, Texas for an internship at Sugar Hill Recording Studios, where she was eventually hired as a recording engineer and studio manager. Heba moved to New York City in 2007 to focus on mastering. In 2013, after working in several NY studios, she built her own in Brooklyn.

Heba has mastered records for notable artists, such as Slowdive, The Mars Volta, John Maus, Future Islands, Neon Indian, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alex G, Cate Le Bon, Diamanda Galas, Lightning Bolt and Beach House. She also mastered the film scores, Midsommar and Jackie. In 2017, Heba was handpicked by the legendary Icelandic artist Björk to mix her album, Utopia.

Jace Clayton is an artist and writer based in Manhattan, also known for his work as DJ /rupture. Clayton uses an interdisciplinary approach to focus on how sound, memory, and public space interact, with an emphasis on low-income communities and the global South. His book Uproot: Travels in 21st Century Music and Digital Culture was published in 2016 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He serves on the Music faculty of Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts and is currently teaching a seminar on ‘Interdisciplinary Temporalities in Performance’ at Harvard University.

Hassan Wargui is a Moroccan based musician and banjo player. He is a founding member of several musical groups, including Boshart, Imanaren, Etran Tiznit and Tidokla. He has released seven albums.

Abed Hathot is a music entrepreneur, composer, and Arabic music expert. He started his music career as founder and guitarist of Khalas Arabic Rock Orchestra, which was the winner of the MetalHammer & Orange Golden Gods Award for Best Global Metal Band. Abed’s music production work includes composition for television and film, and he has written music for movie trailers, documentaries, corporate films, and commercials. Abed co-founded The Palestine Music Expo (PMX), which connects Palestinian artists with international music industry leaders, including major record labels and internationally acclaimed festivals. Abed is also the founder of Levantine Music Group, a music publishing company that promotes artists from the MENA region in the US. Through these different initiatives, Abed seeks to create business and growth opportunities for artists and music professionals from the MENA region around the world.

Musician, engineer, mixer and producer, Adham Zidan, is a band member of The Invisible Hands. Based in Cairo, He is also part of the improvisational collective, Procession Towards The Unknown, and the lo-fi, psych outfit, Today Is Tomorrow. Adham has worked in the studio and live with Alvarius B, Baskot Lel Baltageyya, Lekhfa, Maurice Louca, Nadah El Shazly, Natik Awayez, Tamer Abu Ghazaleh,Tarkamt, The Dwarfs Of East Agouza and Youssra El Hawary.