For the inaugural edition of the Rekord Gallery Listening Sessions, Efie Gallery presented an evening dedicated to reconsidering how music can be encountered collectively. Conceived less as a performance than as a spatial and social experience, the session departed from the conventional architecture of DJ culture by removing the visible central performer entirely. In its place, music was allowed to circulate as both the emotional centre of the room and an ambient force within it — something to be listened to attentively, but also lived alongside.
Set within the intimate environment of Rekord Gallery, the programme encouraged conversation, reflection, and exchange amongst visitors, proposing listening as a communal act rather than a spectacle. The evening unfolded through an expansive selection of works spanning spiritual jazz, hip hop, dub, ambient, soul, experimental electronics, and devotional music, drawing connections across geographies, generations, and sonic traditions.
The session featured music by Jon Lucien, Benji B, Virgil Abloh, Yasiin Bey, Saul Williams, Asma Maroof, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, aTunde Adjuah, Derrick Hodge, Taylor McFerrin, Justin Tyson, Devon Hendryx, Ryoji Ikeda, Admas, Gil Scott-Heron, Tim McKenna, Dean Blunt, A$AP Rocky, The Dodgr, Jeremih, Jesse James Solomon, Offshore, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Fishmans, John Lennon, Dip in The Pool, Fairouz, Pastor T.L. Barrett, Donald Jenkins, and Karahanyuze — a constellation of artists whose practices move fluidly between improvisation, experimentation, memory, and cultural hybridity.
Production: Efie Gallery and SN3 Studio
Director of Photography: Abdallah Abbas
Chief Coordinator: Ahmed Shareef
Camera Operator: Rayen Ashkar
Camera Operator Assistant: Paintbroi
Special thanks to Sole DXB Off-Circuit.
