Lebanese Indie Music Label // Promoter & Distributor // Radio Show
Lebanese electronic musician Sary Moussa aka Radiokvm was the guest of Ruptures for an interview and live performance. He was accompanied by another star of Beirut’s contemporary music scene, Liliane Chlela, who was herself the guest of Ruptures some weeks prior.
Listen:
Radio KVM (part 1)
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Radio KVM (part 2)
Track listing:
Radiokvm *2
Radiokvm LIVE
Ziad Moukarzel & Jawad Nawfal [Index/Left]
OkyDoky & Radiokvm
Beirut Scum Society
Radiokvm LIVE *2
With a new album (almost) in hand, two concerts scheduled for late October and early November 2011, and another full-blown album in the works, it was high time that The Incompetents (Serge Yared & Fadi Tabbal) took over the studios of Radio Lebanon for the second time, with their ranting, raving, on-air arguments, and of course, some pretty competent music playing!
Listen:
Incompetents (part 1)
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Incompetents (part 2)
Track listing:
The Incompetents LIVE *Disposable Valentine
The Incompetents LIVE *Cannibal Blues
The Incompetents LIVE *This Gun’s for Hire
The Incompetents LIVE *Prelude To An Abyss
The Incompetents (Daniel Johnston cover)
The Incompetents (Tom Waits cover)
The Incompetents LIVE *Closing Time
The Incompetents LIVE *Cannibal Blues (bis, because the first take did not work out so well!)
The Incompetents LIVE *After Hours (Velvet Underground cover)
The Incompetents (feat. Wissam Charaf)
THE IMAGINARY SOUNDSCAPES is the electronic version of a meeting between STÉPHANE RIVES, who following his early 2010 solo project, Islets of Memories, uses re-worked samples from his discography, mixed with recordings from his daily life and sound environment, and FRÉDÉRIC NOGRAY, who returns to his early research on feedback, here caused and moderated in real time by three effects pedals, oscillating between minimalism and psychedelia.
A WAY OUT BY KNOWING SMILE is the first recorded collaboration between Rives and Nogray, and is released by the Ruptured label.
Saxophone player Stéphane Rives is best known for his sine wave playing of said instrument, whereas Frédéric Nogray may seem a new name. He plays effect pedals here, whereas Rives limits himself to laptop […] In his laptop Rives [disposes of] samples of his discography, which he reworks in this recording, made in June 2010 in Beirut […] The piece is divided in two parts, both called ‘A Way Out By Knowing Smile’ […] [The music seems to be] generated through improvisation, but it doesn’t actually sound like it. It’s an excellent work of low humming […] sine wave-like sounds, which are cleverly woven together into some highly sensitive, concentrated bits of music […] A fine work, I’d say, with some great intensity and sounding like an improvisation of composed materials, or perhaps a composition of improvised parts […] Great work!
(Franz de Waard in Vital Weekly)
In September 2011, I had the good fortune of traveling to Rome for work. I had the even better fortune at staying at my friends’ Mike Cooper and Maria Galante’s house (more like a cavern of Ali Baba, actually)… Mike arranged for us to appear on an Italian radio program called BATTITI [Beats]. A lovely fellow by the name of Pino Saulo interviewed the two of us for an hour or so, and I played music from both the Ruptured catalogue and other Lebanese labels that I’m fond of (Al Maslakh, Annihaya, Johnny Kafta’s Kids Menu, etc.).
Track listing:
MUNMA: Bits and Dust, from “Previews & Premises” – Ruptured #002
TAREK ATOUI: Un-drum #3, from “The Ruptured Sessions #2” – Ruptured #003
JOSEPH GHOSN: Drone 1, from “Je Veux Voir (OST)” – Incognito
SCRAMBLED EGGS: See You In Beirut, from “Peace Is Overrated But War Misunderstood” – Ruptured #004
MASHROU’ LEILA: Imbibillilah, from “The Ruptured Sessions #3” – Ruptured #005
EILEEN KHATCHADOURIAN: Sari siroun yar, from “The Ruptured Sessions #3” – Ruptured #005
MIKE COOPER: If I Get Lucky, from “Radio Paradise” – Johnny Kafta’s Kids Menu #003
SHARIF SEHNAOUI: Trane, from “Old and New Acoustics” – Al Maslakh #011
YOUMNA SABA: Tehfi, from “The Ruptured Sessions #1” – Ruptured #001
THE INCOMPETENTS: Urinal Blues, from “The Ruptured Sessions #1” – Ruptured #001
RAED YASSIN: All About Siham, from “The New Album” – Annihaya #001
Palestinian trio TASHWEESH (Basel Abbas, Ruanne Abou-Rahme & boikutt) spent two weeks in Beirut in October 2011, during which they held no less than four performances (2 for Tashweesh, organized by Ruptured, and 2 for boikutt). They were the guests of Ruptures for an interview & live performance, during which they were accompanied by American-born, Lebanon-based journalist Jackson Allers.
Listen:
Tashweesh (part 1)
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Tashweesh (part 2)
RUPTURED presents TASHWEESH Live in Beirut
Basel Abbas, Ruanne Abou-Rahme and boikutt from Palestinian audio-visual collective Tashweesh will be performing in Beirut for the 1st time, on two separate dates:
Wednesday 28 September 2011
BEIRUT ART CENTER
Jisr el Wati, off Corniche an Nahr
Wednesday 5 October 2011
THE CAVE
Saifi Urban Gardens,
Gemmayzeh, Pasteur street
Featuring additional live acts
MUNMA (Lb)
Jad ATOUI (Lb)
Tashweesh is an audio-visual performance group from Ramallah, Palestine, which brings together installation artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme and musician boikutt, in a joint performance that combines sound, music and image. The result is an exploration of the collision between sound and video field recordings, archive material, vocals, breaks and soundscapes.
Performing in Beirut for the first time, Tashweesh will present a premiere of their most recent set, following 2010’s performances in venues such as CCA (Glasgow), SouthBank Centre (London), Danish Film Institute (Copenhagen), Images Festival (Copenhagen) and Re:View (Katowice).
“Tashweesh is the latest ‘voice’ to emerge from Palestine, representing a new generation of artists who are not only cutting edge but blurring the edges between artists disciplines, social action and geographical boundaries” – Aaron Cezar, Director of the Delfina Foundation, London
Lebanese electronic musician Liliane Chlela was the guest of Ruptures for a superb live performance and interview covering her numerous musical activities.
Listen:
liliane chlela part 1 + liliane chlela part 2
[By Ziad Nawfal]
In June 2011, my musician and writer friend Joseph Ghosn spent a few days in Beirut. We met on a couple of occasions, spoke about the abandoned grand piano in his neighbor’s house in the Lebanese mountains, and the CD compilation I was planning to release later in August, which included a track of his recorded for Ruptures. He also gave me this tape. “You’re the one to get it,” he said. Joe has a fetish for tapes, and he knows I do too. “What is it,” I exclaimed, trying to refrain my enthusiasm. “Oh, just a little thing Charbel and I recorded in one week, a few years back. Listen to it.”
I have listened to it many times since then. Between Birthdays consists of one elongated drone, a musical dialogue between Ghosn and guitar player-extraordinaire Charbel Haber, incorporating fuzzy swathes of guitar and discreet layers of glitchy synthesizers. It’s difficult to tell who’s doing what. The piece meanders wonderfully, veers from instrumental post-rock to ambient electronica, recalls Oneohtrix Point Never on some occasions, opts for pure noise on other occasions… A shadowy voice speaks a few detached words, a synth line recalls Joseph Ghosn’s soundtrack for the film “Beyrouth”… And the drone fades into oblivion once, twice, before picking up again. The stuff that dreams are made of (for).
New York-based musician Robert Lowe, aka LICHENS, was in Beirut for a few days on the occasion of the Visiting Tarab project, a musical research initiative organized by electronic musician Tarek Atoui and Oriental music specialist Kamal Kassar. Ruptures was fortunate enough to catch Robert and Tarek on an all-too-rare night off, and the two men hopped over to the studios of Radio Lebanon for an interview and an absolutely enthralling live performance from Lichens.
Listen:
Ruptures w/ Lichens (part 1)
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Ruptures w/ Lichens (part 2)
Ruptured Music 