20/10/2022
Introducing the debut artist on Hypnic Jerks
Toumba is a curator at , a club and arts space in Jordan’s capital Amman. It has become a haven for the country’s artistic community in the face of a conservative establishment that often harbours a hostile attitude towards the types of cultural expression that MNFA champions.
A nationally respected artist, Toumba also holds a residency at the MMAG Foundation in Amman. The foundation works with a selection of the most gifted artists in the Levant (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine), providing a space for artistic research, production and critical discourse.
After the large explosion in Beirut - a major hub for electronic music in the Middle East - which left an estimated 300,000 people homeless in 2020, Toumba saw a chance to use music to make a difference.
After seeing footage of countless musicians losing their work, livelihoods and equipment, he decided to call out to artists in order to create a compilation to raise funds. This project exceeded Toumba’s every expectation. Within the short space of three weeks, there were 39 artists on the compilation - Grief Into Rage - including Lara Sarkissian, TSVI, Pugilist, Air Max ‘97, DJ Plead and 8ULENTINA. Now, a year and a half later, around £6k has been raised and donated to the Lebanese Red Cross & The Beirut Musicians Fund directly from this compilation.
Toumba is also a fearsome DJ and was recognised by Mixmag in their Best DJ Mixes of the Year feature for 2020, as well as through RA’s Mix of the Day and their June’s Best Mixes (2022). He is an esteemed resident on radio station, with guests including Ben UFO, Aya, Gabber Eleganza and many more.
