Yamen Mekdad on Memory, Exile & Reclaiming Syria Through Sound

Yamen Mekdad is a Syrian music researcher, sound archivist and community organiser whose practice, rooted in radical collaborations, focuses on the relationship between sound, place and the human condition. Pulling from his expansive collection of field recordings, folk and experimental electronic music, his work maps the emotional weight of sonic memory in a country where archives have been fragmented, censored or entirely erased. 

With a penchant for grassroots organising, Mekdad founded several collectives while living in exile in London, including Sawt of the Earth, Makkam and Sadaa Sound Syndicate, dedicating his efforts to excavating what official histories left out and amplifying the raw, forgotten sounds of the underground scene in Syria. He also co-produced Sawt Syria, a collaborative project with Boiler Room exploring Syria’s diasporic sonic identities through experimental performance and soundwork.

He is currently the co-producer and curator of the Syrian Cassette Archives, a public archive founded by researcher and audio archaeologist Mark Gergis in 2021 to preserve and digitise Syria’s lost cassette era. After years in exile, he’s now back in his hometown, Damascus, to build a shapeshifting creative hub and production company that acts as both a living archive and artistic incubator for local talents across various mediums and disciplines, reclaiming cultural narratives and making space for stories often missing from global conversations about Syria. 

Earlier this year, we caught up with Yamen to delve deep into his archiving approach, and the role of sound in preserving and reinterpreting identity. He also reflects on his journey through the revolution, exile, and return, and how he aims to reimagine Syria’s creative future from within, not in spite of, its fractured present.