The group made up of three individuals of varying backgrounds and musical styles. The United Arab Emirates presents a unique diversity and it is in this diversity that the sound of NOON is created.
Drummer and percussionist Ratish Chadha and Oud Player Mohammed Hosny are joined by Steven Bedford to create the current three person group known as NOON. Veterans of stages in the UAE, NOON has slowly built an international presence.

There are different attributes to the music NOON produces, though only listening to it we hear a rather interesting merging of differences. Usually when music is interconnected there is a certain degree of mergence of all instruments to create something new with influences from different places. NOON’s music does not really do this. Perhaps due to the appropriate structure of Jazz that allows for improv as well as the various different kinds of music that come together based on a certain structural integrity, they seem to gather in confusion. The music at times is cohesive, but perhaps more often than not, the instruments and styles talk past each other rather than to each other. This talking past each other that creates a music that is differences intertwined, speaking of the layering of differences within the UAE, and Dubai.

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There is a multiplicity and yet through that multiplicity there is determined structures that exist together despite one another. This can create awkward moments in the music of clashing. This clashing resolves in itself though, and the music reaches natural speed ups and slow downs that all the different instruments conceded to, which adds a certain togetherness despite the differences.

NOON draws influence from Snarky Puppy, three members of whom they will share the stage with during the Barzakh Festival. NOON are also not new to the New York University Abu Dhabi Stage, having previously performed during Hekayah | The Story. The current project, NOON – Play Umm Kulthum will be performed at Barzakh Festival in its World Premiere, Commissioned by The Arts Center. It will be an interesting take on the traditional music of Umm Kulthum, already a well known established traditional Arabic voice that will undoubtedly be taken in from different directions to produce a warped and unique take on what is old and known.

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