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.

Steeped from a young age in Dabke dance, he blends its earthy footwork with the rhythmic improvisational Nay tradition of Tashbib, shaping a synergy of Palestinian breath and culture.

JASAD rekindles the quiet dialogue between breath, body, and our surrounding living landscape in an increasingly digitised world.

For this EFG London Jazz Festival performance Faris Ishaq will be premiering the new trio format of Jasad.

Stone Nest is an arts organisation and performance venue in the heart of London's West End, bringing exceptional and experimental art to a wide audience.