A series of conversations on music, memory, and movement.
Summer is defined by atmosphere. Heat in the air, sound drifting through space, moments that blur from day into night. An extension of the Sounds of Summer ’26 campaign, this portrait series explores how cultural voices experience sound beyond music, tracing the personal frequencies that shape their season.
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This season, Dubai-based DJ and creative Parvané Barret introduces Table Sonor, a self-conceptualized project sitting at the intersection of sound and dining. Part listening room. Part communal meal. What she calls the “listening table” explores how music and food shape the way people gather. At its core, it’s a culmination of her long-standing relationship with music, cooking, and hosting.
On Table Sonor
The culinary world and the concept of sound are things that I have always held super close to my heart. I grew up eating good food, discovering new food with family and friends. I’ve always been connected to it, ever since I was a child. My mother is an incredible cook, and I’ve taken most of the techniques and love for it from her.
As for music, it’s something I can’t really live without. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true. It has always been in the house. Especially when I am cooking or hosting, it is one of the key ingredients of a great evening. Things feel empty without it.
I love a well-curated playlist; a playlist that a few may not notice at first, but then a specific track catches them off guard. I think the love I have for both of these things made me want to bring them together, create something even deeper, and share it with everyone else.
On sound shaping atmosphere
Sound will always be one of the most important things to me when it comes to hosting. Like I said, things are empty without sound, and it will always create a sense of place, especially when it's dinner at somebody’s home.
They welcome you into their sacred space and have taken the time to prepare a curated list of tracks that shape the evening in the same way the food will. What I love about it is that it often becomes the thing people remember without being able to explain why.
On her perfect summer day
My perfect summer day can vary. It can be in a small tavern on Kythnos Island, with the sound of crickets, plates clattering in the kitchen, and elders speaking loudly in Greek. Eating stuffed vegetables, bread with tzatziki, and fresh fish. It can also be a day in Batroun, at the beach, eating bizri fish with bread and hummus. A small speaker at hand, playing some mellow house.
On her ideal summer plate
The summer plate varies as well. It can be a beautiful white fish, or something more crudo-style, with a lemon-herb sauce to complement it. Fresh tomatoes, good olive oil, feta, olives. Ricotta, artichokes, roasted peppers.
On discovering music
Sometimes it’s in the back of a taxi when I’m traveling; some of the best tracks I’ve found were playing quietly in the background of places. I’m also drawn to music rooted in a place or culture. Whether it’s Persian pop, Mediterranean disco, or forgotten European dance records, I love finding sounds that carry a sense of history and identity. And most importantly, around a table. I’m always wondering, “What’s this track?” and I end up asking someone or Shazaming it.
If she were a shoe
I would be a loafer, as it’s one of my favorite styles of shoes. Loafers are so versatile; they can be worn with pretty much anything. It’s the perfect combination of comfort and class.
Summer in a song
“Why Why Why Why Why” by SAULT.
Hadrien Villedieu is the chef at Chez Wam in Dubai. Inspired by the French slang “Chez Moi” (“at mine”), the restaurant is built around the feeling of being welcomed into a friend’s home, where food, music, and conversation come together around a shared table. Shaped by experiences in Michelin-starred kitchens and informed by extensive travel, his menu is designed for sharing and social dining. Chez Wam is recognised within the region’s dining landscape, ranked No. 40 in MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026, featured on World’s 50 Best Discovery, and included in the Gault & Millau 2026 guide.
On music and memory
Very emotional, honestly. Music has always been connected to memory for me. Places, people, moments, trips, late nights, summers, and sometimes some sad moments in life. Certain songs can instantly transport you back somewhere emotionally, almost like a dish or a smell can. Sound changes the energy of a room in the same way seasoning changes a dish.
On Chez Wam
Chez Wam is fun dining rather than fine dining. It’s creative food with serious technique. Every dish has a story behind it, whether from childhood or travel.
A sound, taste, or smell that takes him back home during summer
The smell of the environment itself. Pine trees, lavender, sunscreen, cigarettes or cigars, iodine, sea air, grilled meat and charcoal, fresh shellfish. The sound is just as important: ice cubes clinking in glasses during long family lunches, people talking over one another, music playing in the background, doors always open, kids running around everywhere. Summer is noisy in the best possible way.
On Chez Wam’s summer soundtrack
We don’t really change the playlist for summer. It evolves naturally depending on the crowd and DJ Sem’s vibe. A lot of soul, soft house, old-school funk, French touch, and Balearic sounds.
A Sound That Instantly Puts Him At Ease
My kids’ laughter. The silence of a busy kitchen just before service. The waves and wind at the beach.
If he were a shoe
A Nike. Casual but still considered. A Birkenstock on days off.
If he were a music genre
Somewhere between house and hip hop. Rhythm-driven, but with emotion.
Summer in a song
“I Feel Love” by Donna Summer
Cascou is a Dubai-based DJ and cultural voice embedded in the region’s contemporary music landscape, moving between independent record stores, listening spaces, and nightlife circuits. His practice is rooted in vinyl digging, cross-genre edits, and a deep engagement with the communities that orbit sound across the world. Here, on a visit to London, he reflects on the city’s vinyl culture and rhythms.
On his favorite spots for vinyls
Phonica was my first access point to edits and bootleg white-label records. Sound of the Universe for dub and jazz.
On Bar Italia
Also, a pitstop to drop-in on a night out if you're in the neighborhood.
On football
Competition encourages creativity. There’s identity, community, and culture intertwined in football that connects closely to what I do and what I’m into.
If he were a shoe
Hoka sneakers. Light with some grit.
Summer in a track
“Tell Her She’s Lovely” by Batteaux.
Zaid Seddiqi is the co-founder of Dubai-based Banou Studio, a design practice exploring the intersection of sound, materiality, and regional craft. What began as a personal pursuit has evolved into a wider investigation of how sound can be physically held, shaped, and experienced through custom hi-fi audio systems and listening rooms.
Banou Studio incorporates DesertBoard, a material derived from palm tree byproducts, as a central structural and symbolic element. For Seddiqi, the palm tree is not nostalgia, but an active cultural material that once sustained survival, and now sustains expression, memory, and contemporary identity.
On Banou Studio
There’s a Rumi quote I always think about: ‘As you start to walk the way, the way appears.’ That’s exactly how Banou Studio started. I followed an instinct that made no rational sense at first, and over time it unfolded into something meaningful and magical that I now get to share with the world.
On listening
In a world that constantly demands our attention and fragments it at the same time, listening becomes almost spiritual. It slows you down. It demands you to sit still, feel deeply, and exist fully in the moment.
On sound and memory
For the past two years, I’ve been a regular nuisance at Artem’s Audio Note listening room… A dimly lit room, a TT2 turntable spinning, glowing Conquest tube amplifiers, and nothing else except the music itself. No screens, no distractions, no noise beyond the music itself. That experience changed my understanding of hi-fi audio forever. I realised hi-fi is not about technical graphs, specifications, or over-engineered equipment. At its core, it’s about emotional presence. It’s an undeniable experience that can only truly be felt.
A sound that makes him pause
A kitten meowing that I can hear but can’t see.
A sound that makes him smile
When my fiancé calls me sweet names! I start giggling involuntarily.
On artists he returns to
John Bowtie and Paul Svenson. These two are genuinely a gift to Dubai. They’re the founders of Gate Two and Mmmmmm in Coya. What makes them legendary isn’t just the music. It’s the dedication to storytelling through sound.
If summer were a sound
If I’m in Dubai, summer sounds like my car AC on full blast. That deep mechanical hum fighting against 45-degree heat.
If summer were a shoe
Bottega Veneta’s Palazzo slippers. I love the idea that you can effortlessly slip them off and walk barefoot. That, to me, is central to the feeling of summer. Ease, softness, freedom, and a closer connection to your environment.
If he were a shoe
I’d probably be a Japanese geta. They’re authentic, functional, deeply rooted in tradition, but also mildly annoying. They make noise when they move, they demand you walk a certain way, and they’re definitely not for everyone. There’s also something beautiful to me about things that don’t fully smooth themselves out for comfort or mass appeal.
If he were a genre
Soul. Without question.
Summer in a song
“Love Comes to Everyone” by George Harrison. There’s something incredibly warm and hopeful about this song specifically. It feels sun-faded in the best possible way, gentle, reflective, romantic, but still full of movement and optimism.