Thank you for visiting my website! I’m a musician and researcher based in London, UK. My work focusses on improvisation, community music-making, health/healing justice, and creative and participatory ways of doing research.
I am a recorder player and vocalist, and the work closest to my heart is improvisation-based. My practice takes inspiration from baroque music, Arabic music, birdsong, poetry and the sound of the sea. I enjoy exploring a wide range of improvisation-based practice both solo and with collaborators, and performed in the UK at venues such as Cafe Oto, the Wigmore Hall, and the London Handel Festival, and in France, Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany. My solo album bulbul (FS Records, 2022), draws on improvisation and poetry to tell stories about birds, voices, home, and the spaces in between. My first book, Improvising Otherwise was published open access in April 2025 by Open Book Publishers.
I am currently working on my research project: 'Carrying Each Others' Hearts with Our Ears', funded through a Hallsworth Fellowship in Geography (2025-2028) at the University of Manchester. The project builds on my research residency at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2024-2025), where I led the project, ‘Sawt al-Shifaa’ about Muslim experiences of sound, music and healing. You can read the project zine here. My current work draws on my practice as a facilitator to create spaces for people to sound and sing, and I have recently worked with the Kiln theatre in Kilburn, the Crafts Council as part of a project with the Arab-British centre, the Feminist Library in Peckham, and the charity Women for Refugee Women. I have also worked as a hospital musician at several hospitals including as Musician in Residence at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, and at hospitals in Cairo, Egypt.
You can follow me on instagram @fictionalfatima to keep updated with performances, and listen to my music on most streaming platforms.
To contact me, go to the ‘contact’ page on the website. Thank you!