Interview with Ahmed Essyad

ⵜⵉⵍⵉⵙⵜ (Hudud)

Leila Bencharnia discusses her sound performance ⵜⵉⵍⵉⵙⵜ (Hudud), presented as part of Subterranean Changes at DADA Marrakech in April 2025. Her piece unfolds in response to composer Ahmed Essyad’s explorations of oral tradition and rhythmic complexity. Guided by indigenous systems of repetition and polyrhythm, Leila Bencharnia positions sound as a living, moving body—pushing against the confines of oppressive temporal structures. Through cycles and ruptures, she employs rhythm as a dynamic force, uncovering layers of resonance and resistance tied to land and memory. Notes are no longer notes, she explains, but colors, textures, a language between oneself, the land, and the ancestors. Subterranean Changes is a Parastatal sound series focusing on genealogies of experimental music and sonic engagement beyond western modernism. The goal is to enable new conversations on race and technology through shared listening sessions and critical sound practice. Sound, noise, and the inaudible provide the stuff for a reshaping of the intersections between time, place and being. https://parastatal.art/sound-series/@subterranean

Inkomo

In conversation with Gilles Aubry, Thokozani Mhlambi examines early loudspeaker broadcasting systems in South Africa alongside African genealogies of listening. His research traces the cultural significance of inkomo (cow) and its diverse uses prior to colonialism among Zulu-speaking African communities, offering new perspectives on early listening practices. Drawing on the writings of H.I.E. Dhlomo, Mhlambi proposes that broadcasting technology can be understood as an extension of the traditional use of cow horns to announce news. Original sound work: Inkomo (2025, 14:12) by Thokozani Mhlambi — featuring cow horns played as wind instruments. Subterranean Changes is a Parastatal sound series focusing on genealogies of experimental music and sonic engagement beyond western modernism. The goal is to enable new conversations on race and technology through shared listening sessions and critical sound practice. Sound, noise, and the inaudible provide the stuff for a reshaping of the intersections between time, place and being. https://parastatal.art/sound-series/@subterranean

Tel un mouflon sur les cimes

M’Barek Bouhchichi reads verses by M’barek Ben Zida (1925-1973), a black peasant poet from Tata, Morocco. By denouncing social and ethnic inequalities, Ben Zida opened up a rich field of socio-aesthetic possibilities. Written in the 1960s-70s and translated here into French, Ben Zida’s verses are presented alongside an electronic soundscape generated with a Serge analog synthesizer from the same period. Subterranean Changes is a Parastatal sound series focusing on genealogies of experimental music and sonic engagement beyond western modernism. The goal is to enable new conversations on race and technology through shared listening sessions and critical sound practice. Sound, noise, and the inaudible provide the stuff for a reshaping of the intersections between time, place and being. https://parastatal.art/sound-series/@subterranean

Interview with Ahmed Essyad

The Body of Sound: Ahmed Essyad’s Electroacoustic music Interview by Gilles Aubry Ahmed Essyad is a composer born in 1938 in Salé, Morocco. After studying music at the Rabat Conservatory in Morocco, he moved to Paris in 1962, where he became a pupil and then assistant to Max Deutsch. Interested in ethnomusicology, he focuses his research on orality and notation, as well as on musical time and pulsation. His music is a blend of Berber oral tradition, serial writing, Gregorian and modal influences. Between 1972 and 1974, he composed a series of electroacoustic pieces in the Centre Américain studio in Paris. Subterranean Changes is a Parastatal sound series focusing on genealogies of experimental music and sonic engagement beyond western modernism. The goal is to enable new conversations on race and technology through shared listening sessions and critical sound practice. Sound, noise, and the inaudible provide the stuff for a reshaping of the intersections between time, place and being. https://parastatal.art/sound-series/@subterranean