Jazz sil Plaz: «3YO0NI» in Ilanz

Mauro Reimann – saxophone, composition
Joachim Frey – guitar
Tim Bond – piano, synths
Elias Kirchgraber – Bass
Martin Maron - Drums

3YOONI is Yassin Mahdi's musical exploration of his biography and lifeworld between cultures and identities. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, and fleeing the war to Switzerland as a child, he experienced othering there as a person of color and was confronted with prevailing problematic narratives about Arab people and cultures. Yassin's musical project 3YOONI is as much a reappraisal of these experiences as it is an examination of their underlying concepts: his debut album "Baghdad" takes on the critical examination of concepts such as identity, language, racism and Orientalism on an artistic, personal level. Concepts that Yassin has also dealt with academically in the past with a bachelor's thesis on the topic of postcolonialism and Orientalism and in his work in the Integration Commission of the City of Bern, and which still concern him today – and not only voluntarily.

"Baghdad" is a ten-song personal and artistic reappraisal of this complex of topics. Musically, electronic beats and synthesizers meet traditional Arabic elements and rhythms, an oud and his unmistakable dreamy, poetic vocals in Iraqi-Arabic. An ambitious and independent undertaking, in which Yassin is solely responsible for vocals, production and instrumentation - a clear indication of how much personal investment and heart and soul has gone into this project. And this can undoubtedly be experienced here: from melancholic and dreamy tracks such as "Les Mots" or "Djinn" to Arabic rhythms ("Falasteen", "Mn wayn?) to driving 4/4 beats («Color Palette», «Said»), 3YOONI presents a finely crafted, extremely urgent album of radically unique musical expression.