Wishamalii is a Finnish-Palestinian trio featuring Palestinian-Jordanian singer and oud player Nemat Battah, Finnish pianist-composer Kari Ikonen, and Ethiopian percussionist Abdissa 'Mamba' Assefa. The name refers to the Nordic approach to Arab-Andalusian Muwashah songs, though most of the repertoire is original music written for the band. Ikonen plays acoustic piano fitted with his own invention, the Maqiano™ Microtuning System, which lets him perform Arabic maqam modes and other microintervals. Their debut album Al-Bahr (Nordic Notes, 2024) won the Finnish Indie Award for Vuoden Etno and was nominated for an Emma Award and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Wishamalii won the Finnish Indie Award 2025 in the Vuoden Etno category for the debut album Al-Bahr.
Al-Bahr was nominated for an Emma Award (Finland) and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (Germany).
Wishamalii performed with the Sointi Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki, performing orchestral arrangements of Al-Bahr.
The debut album Al-Bahr was released on 4 October 2024 via the German label Nordic Notes.
Al-Bahr reached position 52 in the World Music Charts Europe annual list of 2024.
