John Kameel Farah has something to say. In a recent video posted to his social media accounts, he can be seen playing a harpsichord ahead of a concert in Amsterdam. “Many Europeans would probably deny the connection, but to me it seems obvious that the harpsichord/cembalo is a musical descendant of the kanoun, an instrument used in Arabic/West Asian music,” he wrote in the caption of the post. “In addition to playing masterworks by Bach, Byrd and others, I love to stylistically invoke the kanoun through the harpsichord, firstly because I love the sound, and also because it illustrates a historical point of connection.” As a classically trained pianist and composer who was born in Brampton, Canada to Palestinian parents, it is that point of connection that John strives to convey in his music. While he embraces Baroque and early music (he says Bach is the one of the main reasons he got into music as a child), he also borrows freely from other genres, including the vast spectrum of Middle Eastern music that he grew up listening to at home, electronic music and experimental jazz. His performances are physical feats as he jumps between piano and synthesizer in endless interpolations and improvisations on classical and Middle Eastern melodies, weaving them together to create contrapunctual compositions that he describes as “Baroque-Middle Eastern-cyberpunk.”