Raed El Khazen

Raed El Khazen, also known as REK, is a Lebanese guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is primarily known for his fusion of blues, funk and rock, as well as his versatile jazz guitar playing with a distinctive sound influenced by oriental and other world music – best represented on his album Ghosts and Shadows, released in 2016.

His tour history includes performing in his native Lebanon as well as United States, Brazil, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Syria and Guinea Equatorial.

Musical career
Born in Lebanon and raised there during the 15-year Lebanese Civil War, Raed El Khazen began playing guitar at the age of nineteen. El Khazen played small gigs in Beirut while studying to be a Civil Engineer and in 1992 dropped out of university to pursue a musical career. He was attracted to blues guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan and David Gilmour and initially mostly played blues driven music.

In 1996, El Khazen attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There, he discovered the music of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. He learned Jazz and improvised music and dedicated the ten years to follow to studying various periods in the history of jazz and African-American music. He studied privately with John Abercrombie and attended several master classes and clinics by the likes of Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Pat Martino, Wayne Krantz and others.

After graduating, he moved to New York City where he resided and worked from 2000 to 2010. There, El Khazen played with his contemporaries and some well-established artists like Avishai Cohen, Jojo Meyer, Kermit Driscoll, Derek Neirvelgelt, Manu Koch, Stephane Mercier, Ben Zwerin, Juancho Herrera, Chris Cheek, Zach Jones, Gavin Degraw, John Hicks, René McLean, Aaron Johnston, Didi Gutman, Jesse Murphy, and others.

He was the leader of New Light Quartet with Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Daniele Camarda (bass guitar) and Marko Djordjevic (drums). The formation recorded original music under an officially unreleased record "Shadow Hunting".

In 2008, he recorded an album "Losing My Reality" with a New York rock band Running Still for East West Records owned by Warner Music Group, unfortunately the album was never published.

In 2010, Raed moved back to Beirut and for the next six years mainly produced young Arab artists, including Mashrou' Leila, Tanjaret Daghet and Hello Psychaleppo. At that time, Raed El Khazen also wrote music for film and TV, including The Mountain (2010) by Ghassan Salhab; Blind Intersections (2012) by Lara Saba, and Yalla Aa'belkon (2015) by Elie Khalife.

El Khazen independently recorded his album "Ghosts And Shadows", with musicians Walid Sadek (trumpet), Tarek Khuluki (member of Tanjaret Daghet, synths), Dani Shukri (member of Tanjaret Daghet, drums) and Derek Nievergelt (bass/production). The songs are best described as visual sonic explorations blending Arab culture and a Western instrument.