Sam Nester is an Australian trumpet player, composer, and sound artist based in New York, where he teaches at the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. His practice investigates the entangled relationships between humans and the natural world, ​creating large-scale immersive sound installations and musical compositions. Field Notes emerged from an artistic residency at NYU Abu Dhabi’s Center for Genomics & Systems Biology. Collaborating with marine biologist Dr. John Burt, Sam helped launch the first interdisciplinary coral reef soundscape study in the Arabian Gulf. His work will be exhibited at the Louvre, Abu Dhabi in October, 2026.

Toni is an electronic musician and sound designer based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Originally from the UK with a history of DJing and playing live techno music, Toni has been exploring more ambient sounds and recently was involved in an accident which was during a sandstorm. The wind reminded him of filtered noise. Two sounds were used in the composition, the Arp2600 and a sample of Riyadh traffic.

Ghayda Abduljalil holds a BA in Painting and Printmaking from VCUarts Qatar. She is a Palestinian multidisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in deep investigation and immersive inquiry. She begins by researching—reading, walking, listening, and exploring archives—and only feels fully engaged when she has established a relationship with her subject. Ghayda is a singer and songwriter and has explored synthesis and electronic music during her time at VCU.

WYWY is a UAE-based dream pop and experimental sound duo formed in 2015 by X Alvarez and Mckie Alvarez. Their work blends ambient textures, layered vocals, and environmental sound, moving fluidly between music and sound art. Their album Whispers of Existence reflects an intimate and immersive approach to songwriting, while also expanding into experimental sound practices. In the track “The Shand,” WYWY incorporates environmental samples, including fragments of news from television and social media, alongside improvised textures. The piece captures the emotional weight of the present moment, responding to global realities particularly Gaza, through sound that is raw, reflective, and deeply human. WYWY’s practice transforms everyday noise into sonic spaces for listening, reflection, and care.

SAWRD is the project of Saeed Al Wardi, a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and producer based in the Sultanate of Oman. His creative journey began with a love for movement, art, and film, which naturally grew into working with sound, performance art, and visual art. His music blends field recordings, modular synths, and live Improvisation to create immersive and emotional soundscapes. For the track Ephemeral, SAWRD Records sounds of children playing in a park, birds singing, and adding soft, dreamy synth sounds. These sounds reflect feelings of innocence, joy, and a strong connection to nature. The track brings together the liveliness of everyday life with Ambience and synthetic sounds, exploring how natural moments can exist alongside technology.

TuaregBeats aka RDND, is Radwan Osama, a hip-hop artist from Laâyoune, Morocco, based in Qatar. He has released nearly 100 tracks since 2009, blending raw storytelling with sounds shaped by travel and everyday life. His last album IMRTL was released on Al Wakra Records in 2024, bringing North African rap to a global audience. This composition draws from his daily journeys through Doha—metro rides, elevators, and crowds—transforming movement, encounters, and rhythms into melodies that reflect his emotions, lived experience, and personal therapy. 

Out of Tune Wolf is Joshua Rodenberg, an artist and educator working with sound as both material and message. His practice focuses on manipulating and synthesizing field recordings and environmental data to create immersive sonic experiences. As Head of Innovative Media Studios and Assistant Professor at VCUarts Qatar, his work explores the emotional and spatial potential of sound. This piece began as a field recording from the Arabian Gulf, later processed through modular synthesis. The crackling pops and snaps of coral are transformed into percussive rhythms that mirror the pulse of the reef. In 2024, Rodenberg was selected for the Arctic Circle Artist Residency, where he collected field recordings and ocean data while sailing through the Svalbard archipelago. This ongoing research continues to shape performances that reflect on climate change and rapidly shifting marine environments.

Safeya Alblooshi is a sound artist whose practice engages with found sound through participatory performance and installation, exploring conceptual narrative, environmental listening, and interactivity. Working primarily with her own field recordings, she often integrates them with modular synthesis. Her research focuses on the sound cultures of urban UAE and environmental soundscapes. Human-caused Contamination weaves together recordings from Mina Zayed Port and the fish market to reflect how fishing and consumption practices contribute to the degradation of marine environments. The work forms a part of a broader artistic inquiry into how sound can reveal the unseen and unheard impacts of contamination on local ecosystems. She is also the founder of Resound UAE.

Sukatoyo is the experimental music and sound art project of Dubai-based Filipino artist and Analog Amigo Records curator Jordan Cortez. Sukatoyo’s work is characterized by expansive ambient soundscapes that are lush, relatively floating, meditative, and durational. These pieces are generated through a combination of different instruments, plugins and effects; mostly digitally processed but recorded directly into tape with minimal editing or mastering. The field recording elements in this composition were captured during a brief stay in Fujairah, near the Oman border. They consist of two moments recorded during a roadside pause to explore an abandoned "baqala" (grocery store), now partially reclaimed by nature, where fig-like trees had taken root and birds nested among the quiet ruins. The composition explores memory, place, and nature.

Khulaifi is a Qatar-based musician blending modern styles with cultural influences. Rooted in electronic dance music, his practice also draws from hip-hop, rock, and metal, later shifting toward orchestral arrangements and film music to reflect Qatar’s future and his national pride. Touch Sand! evokes stepping away from the digital world to reconnect with the physical. Using granular synthesis, environmental recordings, and his voice, he creates atmospheric textures from sounds of sand, glass, and water captured within his physical environment. 

Spencer Hogg is an artist and sound designer based in the United Arab Emirates (originally from the UK) whose practice explores the complexities of place, movement, and belonging. Spencer's creative outcomes have been exhibited at art institutions and festivals globally, and he has collaborated on experimental projects in film, theatre, and dance as a sound designer. Buzz, Bang, Pray, Fly is a soundscape of a contemporary GCC City. The vibrations of humans, nature, construction, and the subterranean electromagnetic frequencies that power AI and cities resonate and harmonise together in this sonic composition of field-recorded sounds. 

3R1K4 is Erika Tsuchiya, multidisciplinary artist of Japanese origin based in Qatar, working with immersive media, specifically full-dome and live audio-visual performance. Before joining VCUarts Qatar, Erika led community media projects in Philadelphia working with incarcerated writers and artists. Her recent performances include Mutek Dubai, Sound Kitchen in Sharjah, and Tasmeem, Doha. She provides vocals for Philadelphia based electronic group, ALKA, and was previously signed to Puzzlebox Records in Detroit with Aux88. Her creative journey reflects a fusion of artistic expression, technological innovation, and social activism fostering connections across diverse cultures and communities, using media as a tool for social change.

Mourad Bncr is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist, educator specializing in immersive creation, and a key contributor to the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT). During a short visit to Qatar to contribute his expertise in immersive fulldome filmmaking, he and Erika shared influences and field recordings, with the perspective of developing future collaborations. The piece Sunrise was later completed, a light electronic arrangement layered with a rare rain sound recorded from Erika’s housing complex. Mourad also provided initial advice and knowledge regarding his own experimentation with bio-materials for record making, and served as an advisor to the project at the initial stages.