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).ย Apr 27 – Malmo (SE) at Intonal Festivalย
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 Armsย
THEY KEPT OUR PHOTOGRAPHS: Listen/Order (Ruptured)ย
We are thrilled to announce Ripe, the long-awaited new album by Beirutโs shoegaze trio POSTCARDS โ 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 Harveyโs darker moments, culminating in Sabra belting out: โOur ancestors may have known / Thereโs nowhere left to go.โ
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 franรงais du Liban through MASAR, a French initiative supporting contemporary music in Lebanon.
Mayssa Jalladโs live set from Trans Musicales 2024 is now up on KEXP.
Recorded at LโAntipode 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.
Mayssaโs album Marjaa: The Battle Of The Hotels, released by Ruptured and Six of Swords in March 2023, is still available on both labelsโ Bandcamp pages.
On Ghadr, Sandy Chamoun, Anthony Sahyoun and Jad Atoui play with chaos. Built on group improvisation, surges of coruscating electronics and distortion meld with vocals that, while stemming from a background in classical Arabic singing, seek to reroute tradition. “We explore rhythmic structures that donโt have specific time signatures,โ says Atoui about his and Sahyounโs use of synthesis to embrace the tension between order and chaos. โSandyโs approach to singing isnโt necessarily very rigid either. We felt a common inspiration.”
The album, whose title imperfectly translates to ‘Treachery’, began on a residency in Switzerland while the trio were touring Europe (Chamoun solo, Atoui and Sahyoun as their duo NP). It was later finished in their home city of Beirut. The five tracks are built on vibrant circuits of guitar and modular synthesis, the former often acting as a trigger for the latterโs volatile output.
Chamounโs vocals blend her background in classical Arabic music with free-singing, using tradition as a foundation for exploration rather than standards to follow. Apart from “Hayawanon Ghader (treacherous animal)”, all the songsโ lyrics pull from the archive. Opener “Tahal Layl” interprets a Bedouin folk song. “Bihali” is based on a tenth century poem by Abou Firas Al-Hamdani. “Al Moulatham” quotes an Instagram post by Yousef Al-Domouky about the war in Gaza. “Al Samaa” uses a text from contemporary Lebanese poet Paul Chaoul. “Iโm working with my references, and with the music,” explains Chamoun. “Itโs a playful place with my history and now.”
WATCH a video excerpt by Nour Ouayda
About the albumโs title, Chamoun explains: “On this planet, the only thing thatโs happening now is treachery. Itโs the headline of our days.” Terror in Gaza, its shockwaves through the Middle-East and its place in longer histories loom over the record. However, while Ghadr reflects the present moment, it isnโt consumed by it. The trio agree the album reflects tenderness as much as anger. Itโs audible in the effortless swings between abstract and soaring. The way Chamounโs lyrics put ninth century odes to a bird and ancient Bedouin love songs next to personal reflections by Al-Domouky or Chaoul on real world tragedies.
Sonically and lyrically Ghadr is music of possibility and potential. The five tracks travel through unbounded terrain rather than along fixed paths. “I donโt like to pull the listener in one direction,” Chamoun continues. “You need to play with your imagination and not stick to one story and one meaning.” While the record reflects their state of mind as residents of Lebanon, and the uncertainty that entails, Sahyoun suggests theyโre striving to reach beyond it. “We try to access parts of our subconscious and see what dimensions it has outside of what weโre witnessing day to day. When we play, thereโs a rhythm between the three of us. We feel each other sway,”
Ghadr is the first release under the name Chamoun/Sahyoun/Atoui, but the trioโs connection is deeply rooted. Sahyoun and Chamoun are members of ecstatic rock collective Sanam. Atoui and Sahyounโs explorations of synthesis, solo and as NP, are long-running. On Ghadr these histories form something new. A charged record which faces the world as it is while offering glimpses of something else.
On November 29-30, 2024, Lebanese poetry collective SHATR, alongside a coalition of independent presses, poets, writers, and translators, will take part in a 24-hour GLOBAL READING FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE AND LEBANON.
This is the second iteration of this online manifestation, and is scheduled to take place on November 29-30, 2024 โ beginning at 5pm Palestinian time (EET/GMT+2).
This annual event is a powerful and moving show of unity โ poetry and publishing knows no borders and can speak powerfully for the right to free expression. Poetry bears witness!
Readers and attendees will convene online, beginning with Palestinian poets in Palestine and following the sun. As one part of the world rests, another will continue. Participants will share poems in their preferred language, affirming the collective power of words.
SHATR COLLECTIVE (Nadine Makarem, Theresa Sahyoun, and Sarah Huneidi) will host a 30-minute segment, where they’ll be joined by Lara Atallah –ย beginning at 3.30pm Palestine / Beirut time on Saturday, November 30.ย
Listen to Shatr Collectiveโs album โPoppies in Octoberโ HERE.ย
Mayssa Jallad has announced a handful of French dates in support of her album Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels (#41 in The Wire’s Albums of the Year 2023). Sheย will be accompanied on stage by Julia Sabra (Postcards, Snakeskin) and Pascal Semerdjian (Postcards, SANAM, Prรฉfaces).
Natural History Museum is the first solo album by Julia Sabra, singer & lyricist with dreampop trio Postcards and electronic duo Snakeskin. Natural History Museum is an intimate collection of songs, fragile and luminous, written between 2020 and 2024.
In Juliaโs words, โI wanted to capture these songs the way they were written, by keeping the rawness and fragility intact. Fadi and I decided to record them live to tape, with no overdubs, barely any effect – with all the imperfections. Most of the tracks were done in one take only. Some were recorded in Tunefork Studios in Beirut, and some in the church I grew up going to every summer in Dhour Shweir. These songs wouldโve probably stayed in my โsongs in limboโ folder on my laptop had it not been for Pascal and Fadi, who pushed me to release them. And for this Iโm eternally grateful.โ
WATCH the video for “Skyscape” [Directed by Camille Cabbabรฉ]
First single “Skyscape” is currently streaming on Bandcamp and digital platforms. The album will be released in full on November 1st. It will be available as a digital album and a limited edition of 50 cassettes, designed by Josette Khalil in Beirut and printed & packaged in Canada.
Julia wrote Skyscape as part of an online songwriting workshop by Adrienne Lenker from alt-folk band Big Thief โ it was an exercise to write a song based on Genesis Baezโs photo Skyscape. โAll I could see was the shroud used to wrap the dead with, as it was the beginning of the war on Gaza. The song reimagines a gentler, more dignified goodbye to the dead.โ
Stuttering Music is the third album by Lebanese musician and video artist Yara Asmar. The album consists of 7 pieces recorded on accordion, metallophone & electronics. The music was initially recorded for a broadcast by Radio AlHara in Bethlehem, Palestine entitled โhalf-baked waltzes 2 fold your laundry toโ – a bi-monthly hour of improvisations.
First excerpt โi am a terrible mathematician (and an even worse clown)โ is currently streaming on Bandcamp and digital platforms. The album will be released in full on November 1st. It will be available as a digital album and a limited edition of 50 cassettes, designed by Yara in the summer of 2024, and printed & packaged in Canada.
WATCH the video for “i am a terrible mathematician (and an even worse clown)”
Yara Asmarโs previous two albums, โHome Recordings 2018-2021โ (2022) and โsynth waltzes & accordion lamentsโ (2023), were released by UK label @hive_mind_records. Hive Mind recently reissued both albums on vinyl in a gorgeous gatefold package. Get it here.
Last but not least, Yara is set to perform at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in November 2024, both as a solo artist and as part of fellow Lebanese artist Liliane Chlelaโs project โI, the hybrid and the antidoteโ.
“Poppies in Octoberโ is a collection of poetry and music that questions and explores matters of language, violence, and the intertwined fates of Palestine and Lebanon, with particular focus on the now almost-year-long Genocide in Gaza.
SHATR COLLECTIVE is donating all proceeds from the sales of this album to ULYP Gaza Student Emergency Fund, supporting Gazan medical students. Please consider giving what you can (more info at the link below).
The brainchild of Sarah Huneidi, Nadine Makarem, and Theresa Sahyoun, Shatr Collective aims to excite, maintain, and nurture the culture of poetry in Beirut, and showcase modes of expression where poetics are allowed to flourish.
Poppies in October (borrowed from Sylvia Plathโs eponymous poem) joins traditional and popular Palestinian literature with texts written by Sahyoun and Makarem, set to an original soundtrack by Huneidi.
The written works are a tribute to the survivors and martyrs of the genocide in Gaza. Most of the texts were conceived and written in times of heightened emotion and barely underwent any editing process.
The music is a merger of original production and sound clips from historical, literary & media sources, with the intent to encapsulate the chaos of the passing days amid a context of defiance and tragedy.
Currently available on digital platforms and Rupturedโs Bandcamp page as a pay-as-you-will album. Donate as generously as you can.
Recorded by Anthony Sahyoun at Tunefork Studios, Beirut, Lebanon. Produced by Anthony Sahyoun & Shatr Collective. SHATR artwork and album design by Farah Fayyad.
MOOSE TERRIFIC (rptd051) is a Montreal-based experimental electronic duo formed in 2016 and consisting of Sam Shalabi and Tamara Filyavich.
Nude Beginnings is this duoโs second album, and consists of playful modular improvisations peppered with post-punk, jazz, psychedelic and early electronic influences. A blend in which one can recognize subtle influences of Ukrainian, Jewish, Arabic and Canadian musical elements, as per the artistsโ cultural backgrounds, life and musical experiences.
Nude Beginnings invites the listener to participate in a rather hopeful game of hide and seek with its auditory universe, combining cheerful rhythms and beats with unexpectedly optimistic harmonies. Far from being a throwback to a different, more carefree time, which Sam and Tamara do not believe ever truly existed, this album is a punk response to the current moment, an invitation to heal in whatever way one chooses to.
TAMARA FILYAVICH is a sound art producer and experimental electronic musician who has lived in Montreal since 1993. Her music draws inspiration from early synthesizer music, Eastern European folklore, and post-punk, among many more influences. She is a member of B.U.M, Prelubbed Sisters, and the duo Tamayugรฉ with Maya Kuroki.
SAM SHALABI is an Egyptian-Canadian composer and improviser living in Montreal. Since his beginnings as a punk musician in the late 70โs, his work has evolved into a fusion of experimental, modern Arabic Music that incorporates traditional Arabic, chaabi, noise, classical, text, free improvisation and jazz. He is a member of Shalabi Effect, Dwarfs of East Agouza, Land of Kush (an experimental 30-member orchestra of which he is the main composer), Karkhana and Nutsack, among many others.
Nude Beginnings was composed, performed and produced in Montreal. Artwork and design by Hatem Imam (Studio Safar).
Available as a limited edition of 60 cassettes, shipping exclusively from our Bandcamp page.
Ruptured Music 