NICA live: douniah x RAY LOZANO

Singer-songwriter and producer Ray Lozano - NICA artist 2023 - is using her first date in the monthly "NICA live" series for a double concert and has invited Berlin-based singer douniah and her band to join her for the evening.

After Ray Lozano introduced a new formation at the beginning of the year and presented her album Pairing Mode, released in 2023 on Melting Pot Music, in a band context for the first time, she is continuing to work on her live set and is now bringing a new facet of it to the stage. Pairing Mode is a testament to Ray's creativity. Twelve short musical stories explore themes of loneliness, change and the search for belonging, striking a deep chord with the audience. Ray's lyrics are refreshingly honest and are accompanied by her voice, which is at once vulnerable, sophisticated and bold.

douniah sees herself as an "interdisciplinary musician, exploring waves of sound and poetry in her own way." She has shared stages with Sudan Archives and Rochelle Jordan, worked in the studio with Moses Yoofee and Dhanya Langer. After recording an album called Dream Baby with producer High John in 2019, she released her debut EP as a solo artist in late 2023. It is called A Lot, Not Too Much and, according to the artist, is an invitation to a "journey of self-reflection and observation". Musically accompanied by jazzy, soulful sounds that are sometimes reminiscent of Erykah Badu or Joy Denalane/Max Herre, douniah performs her poetic lyrics in English, German and Darija, the Moroccan variant of Arabic.

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The concert series NICA live offers creative space for ten currently funded NICA artists: Sophie Emilie Beha, Marlies Debacker, Ray Lozano, Fabian Dudek, Kira Hummen, Theresia Philipp, Stefan Schönegg, Laura Totenhagen, Luise Volkmann and Rebekka Salomea Ziegler. "NICA live" not only brings the music and projects of the NICA artists themselves to the stage, but also musicians and bands that they appreciate and would like to bring to a local audience.