Snakeskin, the duo of Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal, has announced a handful of European dates in Spring 2025, in support of their album They Kept Our Photographs (Mais Um Discos & Ruptured, 2024). Apr 27 – Malmo (SE) at Intonal Festival
Apr 28 – Oslo (NO) at Kafe Haerverk
May 01 – Brighton (UK) at The Rose Hill
May 02 – Paris (FR) at Chair de Poule
May 05 – London (UK) at Shacklewell Arms
THEY KEPT OUR PHOTOGRAPHS: Listen/Order (Ruptured)
We are thrilled to announce Ripe, the long-awaited new album by Beirut’s shoegaze trio POSTCARDS — composed of lyricist, singer, and guitarist Julia Sabra, drummer Pascal Semerdjian, and guitarist/bassist Marwan Tohme.
Their 5th album Ripe (out March 28 via Ruptured and T3 Records) is both a natural evolution and a bold departure, channeling themes of anger, grief, and resilience.
Recorded live in a family home in the Lebanese mountains and produced by longtime collaborator Fadi Tabbal, the album captures the raw energy of their live shows while balancing intensity with expansive soundscapes.
First single “Dust Bunnies” is out now on Bandcamp and digital platforms. A laundry list of the frustrations of living in Lebanon, the track builds into a menacing, unsettling atmosphere that recalls PJ Harvey’s darker moments, culminating in Sabra belting out: “Our ancestors may have known / There’s nowhere left to go.”
Watch the video for “Dust Bunnies”, directed by Areej Mahmoud
All music composed and performed by Postcards: Julia Sabra, Pascal Semerdjian and Marwan Tohme. Lyrics by Julia Sabra.
Recorded and mixed by Fadi Tabbal in the Semerdjian family home in Ain Aar, and Tunefork Studios in Beirut. Produced by Fadi Tabbal and Postcards.
Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market in Montreal.
Cover photo by Mohamad Abdouni. Design by Josette ZOoz Khalil.
Vinyl edition printed and pressed at Mother Tongue in Verona. Includes download card. Limited to 400 copies.
Ripe was partially funded by Institut français du Liban through MASAR, a French initiative supporting contemporary music in Lebanon.
A monthly selection of alternative, ambient and experimental music from Lebanon and the MENA region, selected by music promoter and label owner Ziad Nawfal. Originally commissioned by Stegi Radio and produced by Onassis Stegi.
1. Muslimgauze – Khan Younis [Shekel of Israeli Occupation] 2. NÂR – MIMOUNE II [What We Talk About]
3. Sandy Chamoun / Anthony Sahyoun / Jad Atoui – Bihali [Ghadr]
4. Postcards – Nine [In Parenthesis Vol. 1]
5. Sandy Chamoun – Soukoun Mouwhesh سكون موحش [Fata17 فتى١٧ ]
6. Liliane Chlela – 2024 [Malign/Benign]
7. Liliane Chlela – Bison [Anatomy of A Jerk]
8. Use Knife – Freedom, Asshole [État Coupable]
9. Nour Sokhon – The destruction and the rebuilding [Beirut Birds]
10. Elyse Tabet – Or other cars in sight [Seaside]
11. Xlmxkhfi – Black Beach [afterthought]
12. Jawad Nawfal – STO On A VHS [Various Artists VV-VA-00]
Mayssa Jallad’s live set from Trans Musicales 2024 is now up on KEXP.
Recorded at L’Antipode on December 04, 2024, during the Trans Musicales de Rennes festival, the set features several excerpts from Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels.
With Julia Sabra (guitar, synth) and Pascal Semerdjian (drums), Mayssa delivers a striking performance, tracing key sites of the Lebanese Civil War and the ways physical spaces hold historical memory.
Watch the full set on KEXP at the link below.
Mayssa’s album Marjaa: The Battle Of The Hotels, released by Ruptured and Six of Swords in March 2023, is still available on both labels’ Bandcamp pages.
Acclaim for Fadi Tabbal’s I recognize you from my sketches, released by Ruptured in January 2025:
“Subsuming the sounds of others into his own, not in his typical bilateral mode of collaboration but through sampling, Tabbal seems to grapple with the binary between community and self. “I am all that is left,” he announces in the closing track. As the tidal synth pads wash over and retreat into tape hiss, the trace of the medium is the last to go. But this solitude is not an abandonment; empty tape always carries the potential to hold space for sounds yet unheard.” – James Gui, Pitchfork 7.5 https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/fadi-tabbal-i-recognize-you-from-my-sketches/
“10 tracks of somber ambient and rose-tinted noise—at times plaintive, at times anguished. I hear bits of Tim Hecker in the smoldering distortion crackling at the edges of his synths and guitars, and a Kranky-esque sensibility in general—in the mournful desert landscaping of “(keep pumping),” say, or the striated textures of “When we swam together,” translucent as quartz. Citing a lifetime of personal struggles—mental-health issues, loneliness, missed opportunities, the violence of Beirut itself—Tabbal calls the record “a breakup album between who we want to be and who we turned out to be.” That sounds like a bleak assessment, but by the end, his tough-love meditation yields something that sounds a lot like hope.” – Philip Sherburne, Futurism Restated https://futurismrestated.substack.com/p/futurism-restated
“A lot seems to happen here in semi-secret detail, which is not congruent with the more obvious, superficial events and at the same time interacts with them in an interesting way. At points like this one has to mention Tabbal’s musician friends – Julia Sabra, Charbel Haber, Anthony Sahyoun, et al: people who have repeatedly played an important role in the artist’s life and work and whose samples and quotations beneath the surface also shape the sound of this album, which fits well with the personal theme, because every biography, every personal memory would not be what it is without the influence of others. The semi-transparency of the sounds creates a tension that is never fully resolved and also leaves open the question of whether absence really is the only thing that protects life.” – Uwe Schneider, African Paper http://africanpaper.com/2025/02/08/
“Tabbal continues his long-standing conversation between self and community, exploring the ways in which personal and collective identities intersect through music.” – Cairo Scene https://cairoscene.com/Noise/
“This latest release, with the lovely title, I recognize you from my sketches, sees Tabbal develop his core sound with even more emotional depth and explores the spaces between memory, identity and personal growth.” – Norman Records UK https://www.normanrecords.com/records/
Acclaim for Sandy Chamoun, Anthony Sahyoun and Jad Atoui’s Ghadr, released by Ruptured in November 2024:
“On this record, scene stalwarts Anthony Sahyoun and Sandy Chamoun (SANAM) join forces with electroacoustic artist Jad Atoui in a reckoning with tradition that’s fueled by stuttering sub bass, searing guitar textures, and layers of melancholy vocals. Chamoun’s ghostly rendition of “Tahal Layl”—a Bedouin folk song—floats atop drones that expand into a blistering modular onslaught; “Al Moulatham,” on the other hand, interpolates reflections by Yousef al-Domouky on the genocide in Gaza over glitchy, Tim Hecker-esque ambient swells. Ghadr exhorts us to listen to both violence and repair, mobilizing tradition to face an uncertain future.” – James Gui, Ley Lines column, Bandcamp https://daily.bandcamp.com/ley-lines/ley-lines-november-2024
A monthly selection of alternative, ambient and experimental music from Lebanon and the MENA region, selected by music promoter and label owner Ziad Nawfal – this broadcast features a mix by Lebanese DJ, producer and promoter RENATA. Originally commissioned by Stegi Radio and produced by Onassis Stegi.
Renata was invited to produce this set in August 2024 and kindly agreed. However, Israel’s brutal campaign on Lebanon soon began, forcing her to pause the project. She was finally able to complete it just a couple of weeks ago.
The result is a mix that carries the weight of the past year —a deeply personal and carefully curated selection that spans experimental electronics, folk traditions, and beyond, featuring tracks from Psychic TV, Suzanne Ciani, Raed Yassin, and more.
Accompanying the set is a full-length video of Renata spinning live on vinyl, filmed in Beirut and available to watch on Ruptured’s YouTube channel – see below.
Filming and editing by Anthony Zouein and Rony Khoubieh in Beirut. Tech support by Wicked Solutions.
TRACK LIST:
Psychic TV / Rene Hell / Unidentified members of the Royal Drums Ensemble / Maria Nanemba Muyinda / Evaristo Muyinda / Chants et Danses des Montagnards du Vietnam / Kopolyano Kyobe & Band / Mazen Kerbaj / Senyawa / International Archives of Folk Music: Greeks / Raed Yassin / Jerusalem in My Heart / Vollmaier / Suzanne Ciani / Komeda Quintet / Praed Orchestra / Suzanne Ciani / Snekkestad, Kjaergaard & Jacobson / Clara! Y Maoupa / Jerusalem in My Heart
A monthly selection of alternative, ambient and experimental music from Lebanon and the MENA region, selected by music promoter and label owner Ziad Nawfal – this broadcast features a mix by Lebanese musician SANDY CHAMOUN. Originally commissioned by Stegi Radio and produced by Onassis Stegi.
Sandy Chamoun is a multifaceted artist, singer, and actor based in Beirut. Her music draws from her ongoing interest in a wide range of subjects, including audio-visual arts, politics, satire, and folk traditions.
In 2022, Chamoun released her debut solo album, FATA17OCT. She is currently developing her second album, Sawt El Doumoue, commissioned by Mophradat. Beyond her solo work, she is a founding member of two notable musical groups: the political satire band The Great Departed and the free-rock, post-folk sextet SANAM. SANAM’s debut album, Aykathani Malakon, was released in June 2023 on the UK label Mais Um Discos to critical acclaim, followed by the live album Live at Cafe Oto a year later.
Chamoun has also delved into Arabic folk songs with social and political themes. She has performed the works of iconic figures like Sheikh Imam and Mona Meraashli at venues such as Metro Al-Madina in Beirut. As a performer, she has appeared in several acclaimed Lebanese theater productions, including Political Circus, Welada88, and Aghani Servicet (Taxi Songs). Her skills extend to sound design, with credits in short films such as There Is a Baba in Our House by Leil Zahra Mortada and Congress of Idling Persons by Bassem Saad.
TRACK LISTING:
– Anthony Sahyoun feat. Julia Sabra: Wasted Efforts
– Marc Codsi: Fugue 1
– Youmna Saba: Al Khayal
– Kamilya Jubran: Wahdi
– Diamanda Galas: Judgment Day
– Howie Lee: Bankers
– Katibeh Khamseh: Silat Rahem
– Arca: Prada/Rakata
– Malayeen: Omar
– Jerusalem in my Heart: 2asmar Sahar
– Mohamad Omran: Aslamtou Wajhi
– Saint Abdullah: Sounds from the Hosseinieh
– Abdullah Miniawy: Purple Feathers
Acclaim for Julia Sabra’s Natural History Museum, released by Ruptured in November 2024:
“I loved Julia Sabra’s Natural History Museum—it was released at the end of the year and is quietly devastating. Her lyricism and sensitivity in timbre and harmony is akin for me to the great Linda Perhacs. The songs are intimate and infinite feeling at the same time—I love the raw and soft poetic settings of love and death. [Her] ruminations on the horrors of the war on Gaza, from the perspective of a Lebanese musician based in Beirut, are haunting. In particular, the ghostly organ and synth on the last track on the record, “Minor Detail”, evoke to me the frightening solemnity of death, and a feeling that the ground from underneath has been lifted and displaced.” – Julia Holter, The Fader Artist Picks 2024 https://www.thefader.com/2024/12/20/best-album-songs-2024-artist-picks
Ruptured Music 