Jordanian musician Symo Reyn has recently released his first album, A Time Between Birth and Chaos, using a modified (electrified) version of the qanun instrument.  By drawing inspiration from the techniques of other musical instruments, Reyn reinvented the playing and sound of the qanun, which was long associated with a traditional genre.

In this event, Reyn will play a number of his new music pieces and invite the audience to take part in an improvised and spontaneous performance that reflects his artistic style in developing his musical work and practice.

​​Symo Reyn is a composer and multi-instrumentalist focusing on the qanun (zither) as his main instrument. Born and raised in Jordan, Reyn moved to Paris in 2007 and has been living and working there since then. Reyn started practicing music at the age of five, and he participated in several events in Jordan and the ِArab world. Inspired by a number of western musicians who influenced his practice, Reyn started developing his techniques to reinvent musical instruments from a very early stage of his work. After arriving in France, Reyn explored his interest in cinema and studied composing with Bernard Cavanna and then with Patrice Mestral at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where he obtained his diploma in film music. He has played in several ensembles and collaborated with artists from different backgrounds at the Opera National de Lyon, the Arab World Institute, the British Library in London, Bozar Brussels, the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, and Villa Médicis.

Driven by the desire for his music to have a universal impact, Reyn seeks to bring new dimensions to the qanun instrument. His approach came to shape in his first solo album, A Time Between Birth and Chaos, where the instrument is used in an electro-acoustic manner.

Symo Reyn’s music carries several identities, and it plays on contrasts by drawing inspiration from different fields around the world, including science fiction and jazz, as well as psychedelic and modern music.