"Music of The Ether " - Liel Fishbein, Ben Khan and REFUGEES @ Boiler Room

Liel Fishbein / percussion
Ben Khan / Handmade and Ethnic Wind Instruments
REFUGEES:
Kawol SamarQandi / guitar, voice
Mary Meacha Goldfish / analog synthesizer, Tibetan instruments

A gentle breeze blowing in a place unlike any other, a lingering scent, the sky. Four unique musicians, each with their own journey, listen intently and delicately weave together a musical tapestry of “Ether.”


biography:

Liel Fishbein /
He is a composer, performer, and poet, a graduate of the Musrara School of the Arts in Jerusalem.
Drumming from the age of 10, during his years at university, he began exploring different ways to make his drums produce long tones and a variety of noise textures, using friction, musical bows, and electronics, shifting the instrument from its original rhythmic role to a melodic instrument and noise generator.
After encountering Zen Buddhism and Taoism, Liel developed a compositional language that uses the nature of the sound objects he works with,
to embody concepts such as emptiness, negative space, nonattachment, and acceptance, turning the act of listening itself into a meditative practice.

Ben Khan /
He is a British Kashmiri artist based in London with a background as a musician and an architectural designer.
He explores experimental sound and space-making practices.
Emerging as an experimental ambient composer and multi-instrumentalist, his practice centres around flutes and wind, crafting his own instruments from bamboo and clay alongside collecting folk instruments on travels.
Primarily focusing on improvisational zones and capture, the project is live focused with capture being a byproduct of the process.

Kawol SamarQandi /
The first music he ever heard was waves of static coming through a shortwave radio.
In 1989, He moved to Tunisia “to study traditional Arabic music and the oud,”under the master Ali Sriti.
He has performed in concerts at stadiums and theaters and appeared on national television.
After returning to Japan, he participated in various recordings, concerts, and media appearances with various artists under a pseudonym, serving as a guitarist, vocalist, arranger, composer and sound producer.
In 1997, he launched the independent craft label PLAKA for EARDRUM.
Entering the 21st century, he devoted himself to “poor” music born from improvisation featuring only his faltering guitar and a voice
akin to a monologue.
Since then, he has continued his activities to the present day, including holding a solo concerts, forming REFUGEES with his partner and synthesizer player Mary Meacha, creating works and performing gigs through collaborations with musicians internationally and releasing albums.
In December 2025, he released his latest LP, ”energaia,” on Ramble Records in Australia.

Mary Meacha Goldfish /
The first music she ever heard was the sound of the wind on a stormy night. She spent my teens immersed in choir and brass band activities, painting in my studio, and listening to the Beatles, Gary McFarland, Ella Fitzgerald, João Gilberto, and Isao Tomita’s synthesizer music.
Around the age of 20, I began working in the arts, creating illustrations, pottery, and interior decorations.
Afterward, while juggling various jobs—including management at a major music agency, photography, graphic design, and planning at a long-established French restaurant—she formed the duo “REFUGEES” with her partner Kawol in 2007.
In 2021, he released the solo albums “Aquarium” and “Aquarium 2” on the independent label PLAKA for EARDRUM, and in 2022, REFUGEES’ first LP, “a distant land of longing,” was released by Ramble Records.
In 2024, She and Kawol were invited by the UAE Sharjah Arts Foundation to hold concerts and workshops there. In 2025, REFUGEES will perform a concert in Athens, Greece.
Concerts is scheduled for 2026 in Wellington, New Zealand.