Faris Ishaq

EFG London Jazz Festival 2026

JASAD جَسَد (Arabic for “Body”) is the new album by Palestinian Nay virtuoso and percussionist Faris Ishaq, a breath-driven manifesto reimagining the Nay — a Middle Eastern flute with a 5,000-year history — as a contemporary, self-sustained acoustic landscape.

Performing the Nay alongside a leg-mounted frame drum, the JASAD setup was born from the Nay’s raw intensity. Made of reed cane, with no mouthpiece or mechanics, it responds solely to the player’s breath and intention, a quality celebrated in JASAD as living technology.

Faris creates an array of breath-led extended techniques and intricate rhythms, trading electronic effects for acoustic illusions, woven live with his soulful lyricism into an immersive, multi-layered acoustic solo.