The members of Jawa strive to preserve and reinterpret the musical heritage of the Syrian city of Aleppo, a long-standing spiritual tradition currently threatened by the war in Syria. The rich Sufi musical tradition was passed down orally from generation to generation for decades. Today, this art of the Sufi masters is in decline, making its preservation all the more important.

The musicians of the ensemble Jawa, who now live in Belgium, continue to share the traditions of their ancestors beyond their homeland. To the style that was originally performed a cappella, they gradually added musical instruments, making it more accessible to contemporary audiences. Jawa approaches this music from a personal perspective and gives it their own vision, while preserving the traditional forms of the Sufi muwashshah style, blending it with oriental rhythms and maqams.

In 2023, they released a successful album titled Last Breaths from Aleppo. Material from this album, arranged for a quartet consisting of Khaled Alhafez – vocals, percussion; Youssef Nassif – qanun; Tammam Alramadan – ney; and Marwan Fakir – violin, will also be performed at the Bratislava concert.

In addition, a whirling dervish will perform alongside these virtuosic musicians, using repeated spinning movements that imitate planets orbiting the Sun to celebrate God and His creation in divine unity through this meditative motion.

Their concert is not just a musical performance—it is an act of cultural resistance, spiritual continuity, and the preservation of a fragile tradition that they carry forward across borders and generations.