Inside the Palestinian Sound Archive at The Yard, Beacon, NY

Inside the Palestinian Sound Archive: preserving the audiovisual legacy of Palestine, one record at a time.

Uncovered from old shops and markets across the West Bank, this archive compiles vinyl records and tapes along with stories of their production, distribution and relevance to Palestinian history. Founder Mo’min Swaitat tells us about the origins of the project.

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Palestinian Sound Archive is a celebration of music, spoken word and album artwork from historic Palestine, mainly from the 1960s – 1990s. It is part of Majazz Project, a Palestinian-led record label and research platform founded by actor, director and filmmaker Mo’min Swaitat in 2020.

Over several years, Swaitat amassed an extensive archive of cassettes and vinyl records from Palestine and beyond, spanning everything from field recordings of Bedouin weddings to revolutionary albums from the First and Second Intifadas, instrumental tracks, poetry, soul, folk songs and jazz. Many of these were acquired from a former record label in Swaitat’s hometown Jenin, in the north of the West Bank.

Palestinian Sound Archive was born out of the archive and is focused on sampling, remixing and reissuing vintage Palestinian and Arab albums, shedding new light on the richness and diversity of Palestinian and Arab cultural and musical heritage.

Swaitat comes from a long line of Bedouin musicians and storytellers, and the archive references his rootedness in music as a means of celebrating one’s culture and sense of belonging. He plays everything from jazz to funk, soul to dabke, field recordings to spoken word, and folk to electronic music from Palestine, the broader region and across the Global South.

This event explores archival practice as a decolonial methodology and act of resistance, through sharing archival sounds and images that preserve and document Palestinian heritage, culture and resistance.

This listening session features sounds from the Majazz Project, Palestinian Sound Archive and friends, with merchandise on sale to support the project.

Host or Publisher Wild Arc Farm