Global Sounds on the Hill featuring Inner Spaces with Amir ElSaffer and Lorenzo Bianchi: Where Maqam meets Sonic Innovation
Maqam is the foundational modal system used in Arabic, Turkish, and Middle Eastern music.
Curated and hosted by iconic DC impresario and musician Jim Thomson
Inner Spaces invites audiences into a transcendent musical journey—a fusion of ancestral and futuristic, acoustic and electronic, local and global. Through this synthesis, the duo creates a soundscape that celebrates diversity, innovation, and the limitless possibilities of music. Inner Spaces is a cutting-edge musical collaboration between Amir ElSaffar, a celebrated trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer, and Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, an innovative composer and electronic music performer. Together, they create a modular musical work that integrates electro-acoustic soundscapes, maqam, microtonal harmonies, and a dynamic blend of improvisation and composition. This project transcends traditional musical boundaries, exploring form, musical language, and the interplay of electronic and acoustic elements. The music blends jazz, contemporary classical, maqam, raga, and other traditions, embracing their unique richness without oversimplification. Each performance becomes an immersive journey through sonic spaces, guided by modular structures and improvised sections. This work invites listeners into a transcultural world where musical idioms converge in a seamless exploration of boundary-less sound.
Amir El Saffar Composer, trumpeter, santur player, and vocalist, Amir ElSaffar has been described as “uniquely well positioned to reconcile jazz and Arabic music” (The Wire) and as “one of the most promising figures in jazz today” (Chicago Tribune). A recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and the 2018 US Artists Fellowship, ElSaffar is a classically trained trumpet expert who not only masters the language of contemporary jazz, but has also developed techniques for playing the microtones and idiomatic ornamentations of Arabic music—elements not usually heard on the trumpet. He is also a transmitter of the centuries-old Iraqi maqam tradition—now endangered—which he actively practices as a vocalist and santur player. As a composer, ElSaffar has drawn on the subtle microtones of Iraqi maqam music to create an innovative approach to harmony and melody. He has received commissions to compose for large and small jazz ensembles, traditional Middle Eastern groups, chamber orchestras, string quartets, contemporary music ensembles, and dance companies.
Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch is a composer and sound artist. His interests range from pure electronics to compositions for theatre and dance, from soundtracks for visual media to interactive installations. In his work, he is consistently drawn to the idea of creating new connections between elements that would otherwise remain far apart. Through projects outside the Western aesthetic—such as collaborations with Ballaké Sissoko or Amir ElSaffar—along with the creation of immersive sound installations like Square for IRCAM – Centre Pompidou or Atolls for the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, and collaborations with choreographers and directors such as Adolphe Binder, Michele di Stefano, Richard Siegal, and Stijn Celis, Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch explores composition and performance in relation to the spatial dimension of sound and the movement of bodies. In this sense, a significant part of his work is devoted to 3D sound, multichannel composition, and holophony. He has received commissions from numerous institutions—IRCAM–Centre Pompidou, Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), the Venice Biennale, the Gothenburg Opera, Musée du Quai Branly, Saarbrücken Opera, Ballet National de Marseille, Ruhrtriennale, Fondation Royaumont, the Haydn Foundation, FACE Foundation, among many others—and has performed worldwide.
About Jim Thomson: Jim Thomson is an independent DIY music producer based in Washington DC who specializes in booking, live music production, artist management, DJ events, and record releases. In Washington DC he operates an ongoing live music series called Secret Planet DC that partners with various venues, foundations, and musicians all across the city to produce unique, intimate, and meaningful performances. He also owns and operates the Washington, DC-based boutique record label Electric Cowbell Records as well as holding down and curating all vinyl DJ residencies at The Green Zone, Cana, La Shukran, Daikaya, Le Mont Royal, Eaton Hotel, the DC Record Fair, and other bars and restaurants in the city.
Jim is also a lifelong musician and promoter, playing drums as a founding member of GWAR, The Alter-Natives (SST Records), Bio Ritmo, CSC Funk Band, Time Is Fire, and he currently plays drums and percussion with Motherf*ckers JMB & Co with Geologist from Animal Collective. One of the first concerts he co-promoted was a Bad Brains show in Richmond, Virginia in 1987 followed by years of concerts including surf guitar legend Dick Dale, Knitting Factory tours, Marc Ribot, Charles Gayle, Negativland, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and many others.
