Ya Ghorbati | Divas in Exile (Vinyl Record)

In her album Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile, singer Laura Elkeslassy unearths the music and stories of Judeo-Arab divas from mid-century North Africa. Developed in collaboration with music director Ira Khonen Temple, the album weaves together North African Jewish folk and sacred music, ranging from traditional Andalusi style, to popular Chaabi, to Francarabe cabaret. The project looks across time and space to tell a tale through music of political upheaval, exile and displacement, ultimately questioning the supposed binary of Arab and Jew.

First distributed as a multimedia Ayin folio, with images and essays accompanying the music, the Ya Ghorbati album will soon be available on vinyl!

About the Artist

Paris-born, Brooklyn-based artist Laura Elkeslassy is a singer of Judeo-Arab music. Her work draws inspiration from her Sephardi and Moroccan roots and explores North-African folk, Andalusi nubas, Ladino canciones, and Maghrebi Jewish liturgy. 

In 2019, Laura went digging into Arabic music theory and stumbled onto a treasure trove of family history. Laura’s ongoing journey of self-discovery—which includes forgotten ancestors, wild synchronicities found in dusty old bookstores, and the reclaiming of a lost family name—is the inspirational heart of her latest project, Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile.

Laura has performed music at countless venues, including Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museo del Barrio, Joe’s Pub, Ramova Theater, Roulette, Three Dollar Bill, Wild Birds, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. She was the lead singer of the NY Andalus Ensemble for five years and has toured across the US, Canada, the UK, and France. As a spiritual leader, Laura has been active in developing egalitarian Sephardi practice in New York for seven years.

Laura holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. In the theater, she has worked at the National Opera of Paris, La MaMa ETC, Noor Theater, and beyond. In film, her work has been seen at the Venice Film Festival, and this year in A Thousand and One Jewels by Ariella Aisha Azoulay at Luminor Paris, the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, Marseille, and Palau Moja in Barcelona. 

Stay tuned for the anticipated release of Ya Ghorbati's studio album, produced by Ira Khonen Temple and Eylem Basaldi. Learn more at www.lauraelkeslassy.com

Credits

Songs originally composed and interpreted by Line Monty, Zohra Elfassia, Habiba Msika, Maurice El Medioni, Shlomo Abitbol, Salim Halali. 

Executive Production | Laura Elkeslassy & Ira Khonen Temple
Music Direction | Ira Khonen Temple
Music Production | Ira Khonen Temple, Eylem Basaldi, Laura Elkeslassy

Laura Elkeslassy | Vocals
Ira Khonen Temple | Keys, Piano & Accordion
Eylem Basaldi | Violin
Yoni Avi Battat | Oud, Guitar
Rachid Halihal | Oud, Violin
Zoë Guigueno | Bass
Marwan Allam | Bass
April Centrone| Drums, Percussion
Nizar Dahmani | Drums, Percussion

Recording & Mixing | Chris Gilroy, Douglass Recordings, Brooklyn
Mastering | Dan Coutant, Sun Room Audio, Brooklyn

Art Direction & Design: Tom Haviv, Sam Fine

Ya Ghorbati is made possible by public funds from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Statewide Community Regrants Program, as well as from a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature, both administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.