The SHM Foundation collaboration with Saied Silbak 

This project began as a response to distance, grief, and the feeling of helplessness that comes from witnessing the war on Gaza from afar. As a Palestinian musician living in the UK, watching events unfold while family and friends remain in Palestine has been unbearable. When words failed, Saied turned to music. 

At the heart of the project is a belief in the power of Palestinian women’s voices—mothers, sisters, daughters—whose strength, pain, and resilience carry both history and resistance. As an artist, Saied felt an urgent need to create something that could honour those voices while preserving Palestinian musical heritage. 

The project unfolds in two phases.  
 
The first was an instrumental album of seven pieces rooted in Palestinian folklore, led by the oud and recorded in London. Oud for Palestine , launched in 2025, is an instrumental album that re-imagines Palestinian folkloric songs through oud, double bass, and Arabic percussion, alongside an original piece responding to the genocide in Gaza. By removing lyrics, the music itself becomes a voice of solidarity, celebrating Palestinian culture, memory, and resilience in a contemporary form.  
 
The second phase is bringing the original vision to life: a Palestinian women’s choir performing folkloric and newly composed works in a contemporary sound. 

Named after the refreshing, calming quality of gentle breezes, the Nasmat Choir is working towards recording and performing Falastiniyat, a collection of songs from, and inspired by, Palestine.