Sufian Ararah, Oud
P.R., Cello

The filmmaker and oud player Sufian Ararah (sufianararah.com) presents compositions and films from his hometown Tripoli. Sounds from Tripoli is a live performance blending music, film, and poetry to evoke the spirit of Tripoli in Libya.

The oud and cello intertwine in rich, rhythmically diverse compositions, drawing from Mediterranean, North African, Jazz, and Classical traditions. Accompanied by visuals and photography by Sufian Ararah, born and raised in Tripoli, the performance offers an intimate window into a city shaped by memory, sound, and place. An evening to listen, to feel, to remember – and to explore.

Admission: 15,- Euro/10,- Euro

About Sounds from Tripoli

In recent years, Libya has remained largely closed to the world. Decades of isolation under the former regime, followed by political unrest and conflict, have meant that tourism has almost completely disappeared. Few have had the opportunity to truly experience the beauty, complexity and everyday life of cities like Tripoli.

The filmmaker and cameraman Sufian Ararah, who was born and grew up in Tripoli, asked himself the question: If people cannot travel to Tripoli, could he bring Tripoli to them?

Sounds from Tripoli is his answer – a deeply personal performance that combines live music, film, photography and poetry to open a window into the soul of his hometown. Using the expressive power of the oud and cello, performed in original compositions with Paul Rittel on cello, Sufian creates a sensual journey through memory and place.

The images come from over a decade of filming and photographing Tripoli: everyday life in the medina, the streets on the coast, family rituals, fleeting glances and quiet moments. These images are not meant to explain, but to evoke – they invite the audience to feel the texture, pace and poetry of the city as Sufian experienced it as a child.

This performance is both a tribute to Tripoli and an invitation to see the city through different eyes – not through headlines or history books, but through music, memory and emotion. An evening to listen, feel, remember – and to discover!

About Sufian & P.R.

Sufian Ararah (sufianararah.com) is an oud player, composer, and filmmaker from Tripoli, Libya. After having lived across different countries in the Mediterranean, he is now based in Germany. Growing up immersed in Sufi/Andalusian celebrations and the diverse rhythms of his homeland, his music blends Middle Eastern maqamat, North African grooves, and Mediterranean melodies. Currently, he is developing his debut album Wijdan, exploring a contemporary Libyan sound influenced by Oriental Jazz and global musical traditions. His work seeks to bridge cultures, reinterpret Libyan heritage, and introduce its rich sonic identity to the world.

Paul Rittel (www.paulrittel.de) is a professional cellist, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist from Cologne / Bonn, Germany. They fell in love with making different kinds of music in their early childhood and later studied Western Classical music, Jazz, and Pop Music in the Netherlands and Germany. Nowadays, they realize their most ambitious concept art projects under the stage name “P.R.” - strongly committed to artistic freedom, innovation, interdisciplinarity and explicit political idealism. Their own music is currently mostly rooted in Dub Reggae, Progressive Rock and Funk and takes a clear stand for solidarity, diversity, peace, empowerment and environmentalism. Aside from that they can be found performing in Pop/Rock, Classical, Jazz, theatre, fine art, silent movie and many other spaces.