Outworld Orkestra

Representing ancient musical influences and contempory electronic dance music,
Adham Shaikh’s World Fusion project features Ben Johnson, Shine Edgar Gemma Luna, and special guests as festival and location permit. Fusing traditional instruments from around the globe with pulsing electronic beats, synthesizers, live looping and a good measure of improvisation, the show can also be complimented by a custom designed visuals by Onbeyond Metamedia, and Contemporary inspired folk dance performances of Slava Doval and Guests. This is a rich audio / visual journey thru the Middle East, Tibet, Australia, Brazil, Africa, India, Russia and Balkans.

Adham Shaikh is a Emmy and Juno nominated world fusion composer and electronic artist with 25 years experience rocking dance floors around the globe with his unique blend of natural and electronic sounds. With releases on labels such as Interchill, Black Swan and his own imprint Sonic Turtle Records, Shaikh’s discovery covers ground from the ambient to the floor filling uptempo. His collaborative projects DreamTree, and Outworld Orkestra, bring together musicians of diverse talents and skills and blends them ino captivating and inspiring live performances.

Adham’s multicultural blend of electronic dance music , dub , hip hop , is seamlessly combined with Brazilian samba , Indian bhangra , Middle Eastern dervish grooves , Australian tribal trance , Balkan bangers, and Ukrainian world grooves. His sonic palette draws from numerous traditions.

Shaikh’s work as both a live performer and a DJ has taken him to international festivals, events, and night clubs, including the Waveform Festival (UK), Samothraki Dance Festival (Greece), Dakini Nights (Tokyo), Luminate (New Zealand), The Maori Peace Festival at Parihaka (New Zealand), and Boom Festival (Portugal). He has toured extensively across Canada, with highlight performances at the Vancouver Folk Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, and the Shambhala Music Festival.

Gemma Luna is uniquely talented multi media artist. As a vocalist eploys a variety of techniques to deliver emotive and haunting performances drawing on musical traditions from around the globe as well as her own distinctive vocal style. She is an accomplished dancer, and dance teacher influenced highly by bellydance traditions from the middle east. She has danced and sang her way across Canada, and the world, sharing the stage both as a soloist, and with numerous other performers, including… Gemma is The voice of Outworld Orkestra, acting as a singer as well as MC and tour guide for the sonic / visual journey.

Shireen Nabatian is a talented guest vocalist and violinist specializing in eastern folk music and will be bringing some traditional folk songs to the Outworld fusion

Shine is a renowned Australian didjeridu master , has been performing, teaching and offering sound healing for close to 20 years,He has performed at numerous international festivals to thousands of people. He has shared the stage with many well known artists, including Mickey hart, Jai Uttal, Michael Franti, Rhiannon, Armando Peraza, Gaudi, Ganga Giri and Mihirangi. Initiated into didjeridu healing by an Indigenous Aboriginal elder in 1991, he offered sound healing at Hollyhock retreat center for 10 years. A number of leading experts in the field of spiritual healing, including Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, Ram Das, and Dr. Andrew Weil. His world beat rhythms , percussion and sufi devotional chants of turkey, combined with timeless messages of indigenous wisdom, takes listeners on ecstatic dreamtime journeys into self discovery and inner transformation.

Ben Johnson is a musician imbued with the traditions of many world cultures. Having studied Jazz drumming since age 12, Ben began playing professionally in 1997 as a percussionist with the Rembetika Hipsters, a Greek music group based in Calgary. During his 11-year sojourn with the Hipsters, Ben broadened his musical palate, studying tabla drumming and Carnatic music in India, picking up several lute- family instruments in Greece and Turkey, and composing and performing on the Persian Santoor with the University of Calgary World Music Ensemble. Since moving to the Kootenays, Ben has been in demand as a drummer, touring with Howlin’ Dan, Heavy Shtetl, and as an oudist (middle-eastern lute) and percussionist with Juno-nominated producer Adham Shaikh. Ben brings to the group Oud , Frame Drum , Darbouka ,

Cumbus and santoor to the mix!

ONBEYOND METAMEDIA has been providing edge cutting media design for various artists and projects in the electronic music community for the last 15 years. Sijay James, Onbeyond’s creative director, has worked with with performers such as Evan Bluetech, Interchill records, Liquid Stranger, Shulman, Shambhala Music Festival as well as providing branding and design for numerous festivals and music events. Onbeyond has been the primary graphic designer of media visuals for Sonicturtle since 2003, and has helped Adham create an integrated visual presence for his shows since 2009. Adham’s performance is backed by a visual presentation tailored to each show and venue. Sijay’s visuals capture the lush organic world textures of the music, as well as a technological overlay of futuristic patterns and shapes working with light and colour to enhance the audio experience