RELEASES
Find out more about Faradena's releases.
Flash of Blue
2023/24
‘Flash of Blue' is Faradena Afifi's debut solo EP of evocative and moving songs about life, love and death with a connection to the power of nature. The title song Kingfisher, plus Last Call, are both originals. Scarborough Fair, Drowned Sailor and Bruton Town are unique interpretations of traditional folk songs. Her poignant, expressive and delightfully agile vocals are complemented by her thoughtful arrangements for cello, viola, violin, piano and percussion, all played by Fara. She is joined by Steve Beresford, the EP's producer, on piano for Last Call. In the Bandcamp edition of this debut there are two additional instrumental compositions with field recorded birdsong by naturalist and author, Nick Penny. Dominic Mulvey, Faradena's much-missed friend, artist and poet, inspired her to record these songs. Stirred by a glimpse of a kingfisher on a wet and grey day, which lifted her mood and reminded her of her friend, Faradena wrote Kingfisher for him. Sadly, however, Dom never got to hear it.
The music from this album can be performed by Faradena as a solo performer or with her band, Faradena & Friends, including international and UK based musicians, Coco Mbassi, Ansuman Biswas, Rowland Sutherland, Steve Beresford, Melanie Rose, Farah Egby-Huque and Martin Kaszak.
Bee Reiki
Discus music 173CD (2024)
Bee Reiki by the ‘Bee Reiki Trio' of Steve Beresford, Paul Khimasia Morgan and Faradena Afifi's debut CD on Discus Records. The trio initially met on Zoom as a result of Lockdown and from those beginnings decided they wanted to record an album together. On the day of recording and before going into the studio, Faradena was outside doing her T'ai Chi warm up and noticed a large white-tailed bumblebee lying in a puddle. After moving the bee out of the water, she did some Reiki on it to amazing results…the bee flew off in joyful spirals into the blue sky! The exuberance generated from the successful treatment, in combination with enjoying the egalitarian creative process between the now great friends, catalysed this distinctive album. Steeped in nature, listening, experimentation, playfulness and companionship, this unique sonic journey is not to be missed.
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Spontaneously created improvised music from three experienced and very different practitioners of the music - string player Faradena Afifi, pianist Steve Beresford and guitarist Paul Khimasia Morgan. The album has a strong sense of narrative over and above "just" instrumental interaction. Here we find voices, strings, keys and electronics combining to paint a sound picture in where unexpected combinations and mysterious shifts of direction leave the listener second guessing what might happen next.
Faradena Afifi: viola, violin, drumkit and voice | Steve Beresford: piano, electronics and toys | Paul Khimasia Morgan: guitar body and electronics
The Bee Reiki trio will be performing live from 2025.
Interview - ‘In Afghanistan no women or girls have access to education. By playing music I am playing for the people who can't' - Morning Star
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“Continuing to be one of the most resourceful of improvisers, Beresford proves to be a sturdy linchpin between the austerity of Morgan's aesthetic and the playful openness of Afifi's. Together, they have a unique homely chemistry.” – Bill Shoemaker, POINT OF DEPARTURE
“The success of this particular recording is that it wears its soundscape lightly. Musicians as far apart as David Toop, Paul Lytton, Milford Graves, Julie Tippetts, John Zorn, Maggie Nicols have all been buzzing in these hives. What they all share in common is a sense of adventure that draws the ears in.” – Steve Day
“Refreshingly unpredictable” – Kevin Whitlock, JAZZWISE
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Faradena Afifi, Steve Beresford & Paul Khimasia Morgan – Bee Reiki - Jazz Views
Moment's Notice - Faradena Afifi + Steve Beresford + Paul Khimasia Morgan bee Reiki - Point of Departure
Discus Special Faradena Afifi, Steve Beresford & Paul Khimasia Morgan - bee Reiki Discus 173 - Jazz Halo
Faradena Afifi, Steve Beresford & Paul Khimasia Morgan — Bee Reiki - Exposé Online
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"The last time I saw Steve Beresford ‘live' was many moons ago. It was at London South Bank playing with Louis Moholo-Moholo, the great South African drummer from the Blue Notes. It was nothing like this ‘bee' improvisation. For an hour or more Moholo's percussion articulacy crashed and battered space like a man contained in a swarm of something in exile, far more tribal than a single saved bee coming to terms with rescue. There is always a back-story.
This new recording is small, precious and breaks silence gradually. I don't know which came first, the bee Reiki narrative or the improvisation, either way one evokes the other. Faradena Afifi is the only human voice on this fifty minute plus epic, divided into eight tracks. The sounds hover out of a mix in stages, treated/untreated strings – violin/viola, Mr Beresford's piano/electronics and Paul Khimasia Morgan's guitar body and contact mics. There's no purpose trying to work out who does what – this is a whole path rather than individual steps. Even when the strings strike out at pizzicato interludes they're immersed in microtonal treatments of the Beresford/Morgan axis.
Initially I played the album while reading a book. About ten minutes in, I stopped, put down the book and restarted the recording from the beginning; covered my eyes and simply sat and listened. A piece like bee Reiki deserves concentration, not because there's anything virtuoso going on, but precisely because there isn't. This is truly egalitarian music - the virtue is in the collective. At around twenty-five minutes Beresford introduces tangible piano, it's short lived - only there to mark a ‘stretching out' of the bee, an unfolding of wings… bee Reiki becomes its own meditation. Concentrated improvisations are now performed regularly across the globe from a huge variety of ensembles. It's no longer ‘breakthrough' music. That's not the point. There's a detailed vocabulary of sound built on decades of global experiments.
The success of this particular recording is that it wears its soundscape lightly. Musicians as far apart as David Toop, Paul Lytton, Milford Graves, Julie Tippetts, John Zorn, Maggie Nicols have all been buzzing in these hives. What they all share in common is a sense of adventure that draws the ears in. Discus 173 is both no different and quite different; it excels in turning over a new leaf already present in a vast arboretum of music. My recommendation is to stop what you're doing, give Afifi, Beresford and Morgan an unencumbered hour of your time. It won't be wasted. Spoiler alert: The final six minutes contains a form of resolution in song form – and doesn't disappoint. Don't cheat, take the whole fifty minutes first."
- Steve Day, April 2024