CALAMITA is the "rock project" of SHARIF SEHNAOUI and TONY ELIEH, two of the most active musicians on the Lebanese experimental scene. SEHNAOUI comes from a jazz and improv music background and is one of the founders of Irtijal, the most important improvised music festival in Lebanon and the whole region. ELIEH is primarily a rock musician and founding member of the Lebanese post-punk band THE SCRAMBLED EGGS whose work in the last decade has covered many directions from post-punk to pop-rock to plain experimental. They are joined by Lebanese drummer MALEK RIZKALLAH (WHO KILLED BRUCE LEE, ex THE SCRAMBLED EGGS).

AYA METWALLI is an Egyptian singer/songwriter and composer currently based in Bern. Grown up in Cairo, her father would play non-stop Oum Kalthoum songs on road trips to the beach and Aya's mother; known to have the most beautiful voice in the family, always sang at home and at family gatherings, so long before Aya was able to form her own music taste, she was fed immense amounts of Arabic classic songs and melodies that settled in her heart.

The roots for “Al Saher" (“stay awake") were laid when SEHNAOUI and METWALLI first worked together in "Night", a dance piece by Lebanese choreographer ALI CHAHROUR which included a wide collection of Arabic songs and ancient poems, later Sehnaoui invited her to work with CALAMITA.

The four met in a recording studio in Beirut, using songs by "The Voice of Egypt" Oum Kalthoum as a starting point. Together they revisited the song format like a distant memory, and explored the possibilities of classical Tarab songs extracted from their origins and reframed within a stark, contemporary sound.

In this live rendition, METWALLI, ELIEH and RIZKALLAH will play “Al Saher" as a trio on bass, drums and vocals while SEHNAOUI decided to remain in Beirut with his family given the current unrest created by the blood thirsty Zionist entity.