Beyond Skin & Freemuse presents
Music & Movement of Displacement and Belonging
Belfast International Arts Festival
26th October. 7.30pm. The Duncairn. Belfast. TICKETS LINK
Musicians and dancers Daisy Electra (Ukraine), Taranom Pazhuhan (Afghanistan) and Persian pianist Ali Kazemi will headline a concert with a diversity of musicians defending artistic freedom to enable change. More musicians to be announced. Director of Freemusc Sverre Pedersen will also be flying over to attend.
Performances will cross genres Classical, HipHop, Avant-garde, Jazz, Rock and Pop.
Daisy Electra is a Ukrainian-born artist blending electronic modular synthesis, sensual vocals, and ambient cabaret piano into immersive performance rituals. Her work reclaims erotic power and movement, botanical memory, and mythic femininity — creating experiences that are both deeply emotional and visually arresting. With roots in experimental performance, vocal studies, and plant science, Daisy Electra transforms every show into a multisensory myth.
Performing alongside her musical partner - Ali Kazemi, a Persian pianist, multi instrumentalist and composer, they builds hypnotic, narrative-driven sets layered with modular rhythms, haunting vocals, and electric plant symbolism.
Taranom Pazhuhan is a young Afghan woman dancer, and musician blending expressive movement with Persian and English vocals in emotionally charged performance. Her work is rooted in memory, resilience, and beauty — giving voice to the silenced and reclaiming space through sound and dance. She brings a new work shaped by the voices of Afghan women — a performance that moves between grief and power, pain and hope. Taranom was once an Oboe player in the Afghan Women's Orchestra before the fall of Kabul with the regime banning music & dance and enforcing gender apartheid. Taranom now lives in Finland enjoying her freedom as a woman and artist.
Sverre Pedersen has been a film maker since 1985, mainly directing and producing documentaries. He was the president of Norwegian Film Makers Association from 2005 to 2020 and a member of the board of FERA, the Federation of European Screen Directors from 2015 to 2022. He worked as campaign and advocacy manager in Freemuse for 2 years from August 2019, and now he is the executive director of the organisation. He has been the head of production in Fuuse, Deeyah Khan’s production company and chair of the Freemuse Executive Committee.
Sverre has been an activist in human rights, solidarity work, anti-racism, environmental protection, and he has worked with refugees since his early teenage years.
He has produced a lot of music videos, short films, TV-drama, fiction films and animation films, but it is documentaries that is his passion, and he has produced more than 30 documentary films.
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