The Kubera Principle

Home GDPR About Contact Terms Policy

NOON (UAE based Polyrhythmic Jazz/Rock Band) | Live at Alserkal Avenue [Dubai, UAE] – Part 1 Updated for 2024

Updated: February 24, 2024

We’re going global!

Thanks to our friends on the other side of the world, we present our first feature from outside the US – a live set by NOON, a UAE based experimental trio that combines elements of traditional middle eastern music with polyrhythmic jazz & rock. This is the first of two videos we’ll be releasing featuring selects from this live set at Alserkal Avenue.

Band Members:

Drums – Ratish Chadha
Bass – Steven Bedford
Oud – Mohamed Hosny

Track names:

“C4” – 0:00
“Longa” – 10:03
“Duff’s Groove” – 14:55

NOON are the kind of band you might expect, or rather hope, to encounter in the UAE – an audio approximation of the Emirates’ cluttered cosmopolitanism and contemporary, borderless ethos. Made up of three players, drawn from different cultural and musical backgrounds, the instrumental trio bravely embody, and certainly enliven, the hackneyed idea of East/West musical fusions. Up front is the sound of the oud, the most typical international marker of all things Middle Eastern. But sonically framed by electric bass and drums – and freed by the improvisatory impulses of jazz – NOON’s collective sound is distinctly global. Shades of funk groove, African and Indian percussive rhythms and electronic effects pepper this sonic stew. The effect is a little like a proggy, jazz-rock power trio, only with an oud where the electric guitar is supposed to be. They call it “experimental Oriental” – a knowingly exotic abstraction, for sure, but of the very best kind.

– Rob Garrat, The National (UAE)

Venue: https://alserkalavenue.ae

Band Links:

Website: http://www.noonband.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noontrio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noonband/
Bandcamp: https://noonband.bandcamp.com/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/noonbandofficial

Production Crew

Producer: Kayomarz Bhada
Video Crew: Mukesh Naresh, Andrew David, Rahul Menon
Editor: Sharan Kukreja