COSMOS, Le Guess Who?'s platform for independent music scenes from around the world, is back on Refuge Worldwide. This time featuring Katayoun’s investigation of Iranian music’s influence on contemporary club sounds, and the sprawling experimentalism of Bahraini composer Hasan Hujairi.
Katayoun is an Amsterdam-based DJ, selector, cultural researcher and curator with a focus on reviving the rich 20th-century sonic histories of Iran and the wider region. Her visionary DJ-archival practice creates immersive listening experiences that connect music, storytelling and research while uncovering overlooked narratives.
Her mix, East of Elsewhere, celebrates the shared rhythms and percussion heavy music, amongst others, from the South of Iran. It also draws from the work of artist/producers living in diaspora whose work beautifully reinterprets and represents the music and sonic culture of the region. A journey through Bushehr in South of Iran, Punjab in India, Morocco, and Syria via Jamaica, Los Angeles and London.
Hasan Hujairi – Auditory Notebook
Hasan Hujairi is an artist, composer, independent researcher and cultural curator from Bahrain. His music features elements and structures of regional traditions that are recontextualized and highlighted through the use of computational sonic practices. His performance and recording work carries traces from the maritime traditions of the Arabian Peninsula, traditional oud and unconventional instruments such as the daxophone, and algorithmic sound design. He is the co-author of Songs of the Arabian Red Sea: A Cultural History (2025), a book dedicated to exploring and documenting the maritime music of the Red Sea region of the Arabian Peninsula.
In this mix, Hasan Hujairi opens up a deep personal archive, sharing an intimate collection of unreleased musical sketches, improvisations and compositions spanning over two decades. The selection functions as a sprawling auditory notebook, bridging acoustic traditionalism with radical electronic experimentation.
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