On May 28, 2026, at 6 pm
How does a song travel through time? Berlin sound archives and the critical labor of decolonization and return
Alia Mossallam (Lautarchiv „Towards Sonic Resocialization“, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik)
In this talk Alia Mossallam will engage with recordings made with North African prisoners of world war I, and housed in the Lautarchiv of the Humboldt University Berlin, while musician Aimee Rabah will engage musically with the archives of Robert Lachmann’s recordings made in 1930s Palestine. Mossallam will look at the layers of violence that stripped the stories from the storytellers, rendering them as archival objects in a colonial knowledge production project. What kind of listening can be done in this context? And how does the way we listen factor into our understanding and practice of restitution? Knowing that no ultimate return is possible, what are the many different returns that can be experienced in the return of a sound archive? What possibilities does the return of stories, of “communal remains” (Ariella Azoulay), present for acts of restitution, and future legacies of solidarity and survival, particularly expressed through song and music?
The lecture will be held in English.
Participation is possible without pre-registration and is open to all interested parties.
Place and time:
May 28, 2026,
6 to 7:30 pm
Collegium Musicologicum
Am Kupfergraben 5
10117 Berlin
room 501
Alia Mossallam is a cultural historian, writer and pedagogue interested in songs that tell stories, and stories that tell of little-known movements in world history. She is currently a research associate in the project „Towards Sonic Resocialization“, aiming at returning recordings in the Lautarchiv of the Humboldt University Berlin to the communities of the Prisoners of Wars’ origin. This is part of her larger research journey to trace solidarity between North African workers and soldiers on the fronts of World War I, and the insurrections that resulted upon their return from Egypt to Morocco. Her research focuses on tracing their physical and political journeys through songs documented in the various archives of the countries they passed through, as well as those that continue to resonate in communal memory in their homelands. She held the post of Distinguished visiting professor of Middle East Studies, at the Barenboim Said Akademie in Spring 2025.
Aimee Rabah is a Palestinian clarinetist currently studying at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin under the guidance of Matthias Glander. She began her musical education at the Barenboim-Said Music School in Palestine, where she studied until 2022. In 2022, she began her bachelor’s degree in Galicia, Spain, continuing her musical development before moving to Berlin in 2024 to pursue her studies at the Barenboim-Said Akademie. Her artistic development is shaped by both the Western classical tradition and her cultural background, which together inform her musical identity. She is particularly interested in chamber music, orchestral playing, and solo performance, and strives to bring depth, sensitivity, and authenticity to her work. Above all, she is passionate about bringing Palestinian music to the Western classical world, creating connections between cultures through her art.
