Layale Chaker and Sarafand

Lebanese composer Layale Chaker, with her Sarafand quintet, has created Radio Afloat, a programme that embodies her complex and warm soundscape, blending jazz, Arabic music, and contemporary sounds. In addition to Layale Chaker's violin and vocals, the quintet features cello, bass, drums, and keyboard. Echoing the poem The Trace of Blue Passion by Lebanese writer Ounsi el-Hage, Radio Afloat—the vision of a radio lost at sea—explores the intertwined destinies of people and the natural world and their shared vulnerability, in the form of a musical journey through the collective memory.

This concert is part of the Saison Méditerranée 2026 by Institut français programme.

Program and cast

Violin and vocals: Layale Chaker

Quintet: Sarafand

Piano: Phillip Golub

Cello: Jake Charkey

Drums: John Hadfield

Electric bass: Sam Minaie