‘Rock Musicarium’ Opens in Capital For the Good of Music

Monday, July 27, 2009
Schezee Zaidi

Islamabad

A new musical spot ‘Rock Musicarium’ opened here Saturday night with a spectacular display of jamming sessions and homegrown music, with a stellar line up from Coven, Hash, Farhad (from Overload), Shehzad Hameed, Simt, Qiyaas, Natasha, Arieb Azhar, Zeejah Fazli and Ali Hamdani.

Rock Musicarium – the first of its kind in the capital – surfaced as a melodic retreat for music lovers of Islamabad. The soft opening was attended by a large gathering of people, mostly young and many others, who were young at heart. The management and organisers described Rock Musicarium as not just a venue but a concept that materialised after years of hard work, networking and research.

The ambience and a full house inspired breath-taking performances from all musicians. In a fantastic gesture of true comradeship, a lot of artists had travelled all the way from Lahore to show support for their counterparts in the capital city and also the management of ‘The Rock’ for their bold and creative initiative.

Zeejah Fazli, an accomplished guitarist and the driving force behind ‘The Rock’ described the place as “a local platform for the creation, understanding, documentation, promotion, preservation and publication of music.”

The concept started back in 2004 with a free-association music event called ‘The Sweet Leaf City Jam’. Over the years, the Jam has slowly and steadily become Islamabad’s flashpoint for musical content. Perhaps that’s why, it was apt that the first public event was a kind of ‘homecoming’ for the Jam. Apart from being home to The Sweet Leaf City Jam, ‘The Rock’ will be producing a diverse range of music collaborations, artist exchange, cross-cultural events and artists in residence for research & publications on music.

Located in Phase 2 of Rawal Lake View Park, Rock Musicarium houses an open-air arena, a lakeside purpose-built amphitheatre stage set up with preset stage sound and light equipment, with an audience capacity of 500. It also features a cosy ‘theme’ cafe with beautifully landscaped lawns, terraces and courtyards. But the engine room of the project is an audio studio for recording national and international artists.

‘The Rock’ will be working on inter-cultural exchange of artists at national and international levels and introducing newer forms of music (fusion/experiments/collaborations) in the region. It will also have seminars and conferences in collaboration with its partner organisations to work on these lines at both micro and macro levels for the promotion of inter-cultural harmony.

‘The Rock’ is also coming up with a new website www.reef.pk, which would be a world class web portal, developed by Innexiv Technologies, LLC Dubai, powered by the tailor-made engine for the website called ‘The Reef’ (Resource for Electronic Entertainment & Facilitation).

Source: The News.