Khabat Abas

Palestinian Sound Archive – Mo’min Swaitat

Palestinian Sound Archive
“ My Beautiful Side Of The Archive”
The Palestinian Sound Archive is determined to preserve Palestinian audio history through different mediums : by re-releasing music/sound recordings (in physical and digital formats), through club nights and radio sets, through audio-visual installations, live performances and storytelling sessions which situate the music in their cultural, social and political contexts.

Working with the archive for the past five years, it has become clear that it is not only these sounds that need to be safeguarded, but the extraordinary histories and experiences of the musicians who made them, which form part of the broader Palestinian story. We have (so far) uncovered hundreds of stories of Palestinian artists, which we share through live performances: “Inside the Palestinian Sound Archive”, focused on different musicians, and the wider music industry, including tales of how they made and distributed their work in the face of displacement, censorship, exile, persecution, arrests, the First and Second Intifadas and other major events.

The Palestinian Sound Archive was founded by Mo’min Swaitat in 2019 but is comprised of and supported by freelance visual and sound artists, musicians, DJs, curators, organisers and researchers, without whom the work would not be possible. This event explores archival practice as a decolonial methodology and act of resistance, through sharing archival sounds and images that preserve and document Palestinian heritage, culture, celebrating, dance and resistance.

Khabat Abas is an experimental cellist, improviser, composer and interdisciplinary artist from Kurdistan/Iraq. She is a 2026 fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme.
Her work explores memory, conflict and the relationship between sound, materials and the body. Combining improvisation, composition and instrument-making, she transforms the cello through unconventional materials.
Her recent work includes Fragment of Memory for One Listener at Volksbühne Berlin, a two-hour durational cello performance. She also performed at Café OTO, IKLECTIK and the Shubbak Festival in London; the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge; MaerzMusik at KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Klangwerkstatt in Berlin; Sonorities in Belfast; Irtijal in Beirut; Borderline in Athens; Breach in Nicosia; EAR WE ARE in Switzerland; Sound Out in Canberra; and Space21 in Kurdistan/Iraq. She co-founded Duo Moment with Hardi Kurda.

“I will improvise with cello and objects, exploring the textures and resonances that emerge from strings, surfaces and everyday materials. Through close listening and spontaneous interaction, I am searching for new possibilities for sound beyond conventional cello playing”

Funded by INM e.V.