Gouda Bar is an original instrumental music project led by composer and Oud player Aly Eissa. Featuring his diverse musical influences, Eissa’s compositions create versatile and twisted meditative atmospheres throughout the musical experience. Aly Eissa is a composer and Oud player based in Cairo, Egypt. He was mentored by legendary composer Abdo Dagher and Oud virtuoso Hazem Shahin. Eissa’s style is deeply-rooted in the Egyptian classical and folk traditions, and influenced by various western genres.

Since 2012, Eissa has been regularly performing his compositions with an ensemble for live audiences in Cairo, offering a meditative musical experience with a twist. One of Eissa’s musical approaches is the experimenting approach through a unique formation including the Belgian synthesizer player Jonas Cambien and the Egyptian percussion player Ayman Mabrouk. In this ensemble, Eissa is trying to explore a different sound and space in the originally composed Arabic music.