Khaled Kurbeh

Khaled Kurbeh is a Berlin-based musician and composer. In his art practice muhawalāt [attempts, variations] and hawāmesh [sonic footnotes], he layers fragments of piano, amplified buzuq and field recordings.

Experimenting with long-form improvisation, maqām and electroacoustic composition, Kurbeh’s projects often depart from questions like “what happens if___?”. Filling in the blank, he makes sounds and records them (sometimes) – as can be heard on his albums Likulli Fadāin Eqāeh (Research Records, 2025) and Aphorisms with Raman Khalaf Ensemble (!K7 imprint Between Buttons, 2017).

His work has been presented in Asia, Europe and Australia at: Funkhaus, Berlin; ISA Gallery, Jakarta; Brunswick Music Festival, Naarm; Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Münchner Kammerspiele; New Diorama Theatre, London; Novi Sad Theatre; and XJAZZ! Festival, Berlin.

In recent years, he has composed and performed with theatremakers including director Omar Elerian, the theatre collective Rhum and Clay, Collective Ma’louba, Wayang Rajakaya shadow puppetry theatre with Herlambang Bayu Aji. He scored the soundtrack for Almourad Aldeeb’s films Estahbes (Visions du Réel, 2026) and On The Dry Bank of the River [جفاف] (Cairo International Film Festival, 2024). He holds an M.A. from Berlin-Weißensee Academy of Arts, Germany.