Abed Kobeissy – Ruptured Music

Ruptured Album Release // VARIOUS ARTISTS // The Dome Sessions

June 15, 2025September 3, 2025NewsLeave a Comment

The Dome Sessions emerged from the architectural and acoustic qualities of the dome designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1962 in Tripoli, Lebanon. Since 2010, Firas El Hallak has used this space as a site for sonic experiments, exploring the relationships between sound, space, and memory. The dome’s distinctive reverb and resonance have shaped a series of recordings that capture the characteristics of the structure while evoking the untold stories held within its walls.

What began as an individual pursuit evolved into a collective project. Artists and collaborators joined forces, contributing to a body of work that reflects the layered history and collective memory of the dome. Each piece resonates with the space’s acoustics, dissolving the boundaries between past and present, personal and communal.

These recordings extend beyond a musical album; they form part of the soundtrack for an upcoming film that examines the dome’s place in Tripoli’s cultural and historical fabric. The Dome Sessions therefore becomes an exploration of place, identity, and collective history through multiple senses.

At its core, the project highlights the power of collective action. It demonstrates how reclaiming spaces can breathe new life into the forgotten. By transforming the dome into a site of collaboration, the collective emphasizes the role of art in preserving and reinterpreting heritage. The Dome Sessions invites listeners to a shared experience of space through sound.

Wassila Abboud, December 2024

THE DOME SESSIONS: Listen/Order here

All tracks recorded on-site by Tunefork Studios in April 2023.
All tracks mixed at Tunefork Studios by Anthony Sahyoun & Fadi Tabbal, except for Session 8 (mixed by Hadi Deaibess).

Music composed and performed by the artists, except for:
Session 1 (Once I Entered a Garden) originally composed by Medhat Assem for Asmahan.
Session 10 (Zahrat al-Mada’en) originally composed by the Rahbani Brothers for Fairuz.

Created and produced by Firas El Hallak. Co-produced by Anthony Tawil.

Audio captured by Neumann and supported by Eltek. Mastered by Cedrik Fermont at Syrphe, Berlin.

Album photography by Gabriel Ferneini. Artwork & design by Cynthia-ël Hasbani.

Watch the promotional trailer by Firas El Hallak

Ziad Nawfal for Movement Radio’s “Exploring Mediterranean Futures” // 15 February 2022

March 15, 2022May 14, 2022Music ShowsLeave a Comment

This mix was commissioned by Movement Athens for its radio festival “Exploring Mediterranean Futures” [Feb. 15-19, 2022], a 5-day radio festival focused on the sounds of the Mediterranean, searching for geographical and chronological connections through its culture, ideas and people.

Ziad Nawfal’s mix presents music recorded by various artists and bands from Beirut’s indie and experimental music scenes, between 2010 and 2021. A few of the tracks were officially released in some form or another, some of them are early drafts and demos, and a couple consist of live sessions recorded during Nawfal’s 35-year tenure at Beirut’s crumbling government station Radio Liban.

Fadi Tabbal – After the Fire, Before the End [Unreleased]
Charbel Haber & Sary Moussa – And Yet Another Romance on A Sinking Ship [V/A The Drone Sessions Vol. 1]
Scrambled Eggs & A Trio – Beach Party at Mirna el Chalouhi (Diamond Setter’s Rework) [Unreleased]
The Art of Boo – BoomKaboom [Unreleased]
Safa – Dominant Gene [V/A Lost Archives]
Jad Atoui – FDBCK [Unreleased]
Tres Milliones Dolares – Jon Black [V/A Anthology of Electroacoustic Lebanese Music]
Ziad Moukarzel – Questions of Worry [V/A Anthology of Electroacoustic Lebanese Music]
Court Circuit (Osman Arabi & Heathen) – Ruptured Session February 2010 [Unreleased]
Jawad Nawfal – Nawa Athar 0 (feat. Aya Metwalli) [V/A Istimrar Phase 1]
Abed Kobeissy & Sary Moussa – A Simple Song About Weather & Murder [V/A Istimrar Phase 1]
Aya Metwalli – Red Curtains Forever [Unreleased]
Sharif Sehnaoui & Mazen Kerbaj – Ruptured Session April 2012 [Unreleased]
Jana Saleh – Soupire [V/A Istimrar Phase 1]
Julia Sabra – Three Days [V/A Istimrar Phase 1]
Fadi Tabbal & Julia Sabra – Roots [V/A The Drone Sessions Vol. 1]
Marc Codsi – Untitled #3 [Unreleased]
Youmna Saba – Nafas [V/A Ruptured Sessions Vol. 6: For Beirut]
Anthony Sahyoun – Two Foxes Trotting on A Lane in Qartaba [Unreleased]
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh – Ya Dam’at Al ‘Ain [V/A Ruptured Sessions Vol. 4]

[This mix was commissioned and produced by Onassis Cultural Center, and presented for the first time in the frame of MOVEMENT RADIO]

Ziad Nawfal Guest Mix for Movement Radio // 04 January 2022

January 14, 2022October 16, 2022Music ShowsLeave a Comment

Ziad Nawfal’s monthly mix for Movement Radio in Athens, featuring music from Lebanon, Indonesia and Germany. This mix was commissioned and produced by Onassis Cultural Center, and presented for the first time in the frame of MOVEMENT RADIO.

1. Kinematik – Al Jadi (Capricorn) [LB]
2. Senyawa – Alkisah I [ID]
3. TEDTEDTED – Cama [LB]
4. NP [Anthony Sahyoun & Jad Atoui] – Coins with Memory [LB]
5. Liliane Chlela & Ziad Moukarzel – Dahr el Baydar [LB]
6. Two or The Dragon – Dance Grooves for The Weary (Part 1) [LB]
7. Calamita – The Industry [LB/IT]
8. Sharif Sehnaoui & Tony Elieh – Woe to Him [LB]
9. Stellar Banger [Giw/Hout/Kobeissy/Turnbull] – Put Your Medicine In Your Banana Bag [LB/DE]

(2021 end-of-year lists) – SARY MOUSSA

January 2, 2022January 2, 2022ChartsLeave a Comment

It had been a while (five good years actually) since we’d done this, so we went ahead and asked the musicians whom we worked with this year in some respect or other, to tell us about their favorite albums of 2021.

SARY MOUSSA

– Lucy Railton & Kit Downes: Subaerial
– FUJI||||||||||TA: Tsu Tsu
– Jerusalem In My Heart: Qalaq
– Demdike Stare: Drum Machines
– Mark Fell & Will Guthrie: Infoldings/Diffractions
– Olivia Block: Innocent Passage in The Territorial Sea
– aya: im hole
– Anthony Sahyoun: Proof by Infinite Descent
– Leila Bordreuil: Not An Elegy
– Loraine James: Reflection

Continuation & previously released tracks listened to in 2021:

– JLZ & LYCOX: UH UH BALANCOU
– Nour Al Houda: Ya Jarat al Wadi
– Abou Baker Salim: Ya Hamel al Athqal
– Jessica Moss: Opened Ending
– Mohammad Reza Mortazavi: Ritme Jaavdanegi
– Unknown Singer: Teir Al Hamami (Originally sung by Mehad Hamad) / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cArefgHje6s
– Eartheater: Phoenix: La Petite Mort Édition
– Two or The Dragon: Dance Grooves For The Weary EP
– Powell: Piano Music 1-7
– Claire Rousay: A Softer Focus
– Lee Gamble: Flush Real Pharynx 2019-2021
– Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu: Renegade Breakdown Remixes
– Kinematik: Ensemble 1: Al Jadi
– Liliane Chlela: Safala

(2021 end-of-year lists) – JAD ATOUI

December 31, 2021January 2, 2022ChartsLeave a Comment

It’s been a while (five good years actually) since we’ve done this, and so we’ve gone ahead and asked the musicians whom we worked with this year in some respect or other, to tell us about their favorite albums of 2021.

JAD ATOUI

– Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra: Promises
– Thomas Ankersmit: Perceptual Geography
– Anthony Sahyoun: Proof by Infinite Descent
– Two or the Dragon: Dance Grooves for The Weary
– Jerusalem In My Heart: Qalaq
– Chuck Bettis: Blood Activation
– Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe: Candyman (Original Soundtrack)
– Jan Jelinek: The Raw and the Cooked
– Maurice Louca: Sa’et el Hazz
– Pavel Milyakov & Bendik Giske: Untitled

(2021 end-of-year lists) – ANTHONY SAHYOUN

December 28, 2021January 2, 2022ChartsLeave a Comment

ANTHONY SAHYOUN

– Maurice Louca: Sa’et el Hazz
– Space Afrika: Honest Labour
– Postcards: After the Fire, Before the End
– Two or the Dragon: Dance Grooves for The Weary
– Jonny Greenwood: Spencer (Original Soundtrack)
– Squid: Bright Green Field
– aya: im hole
– Jessica Moss: Phosphenes
– Aldo Clementi: Canoni Circolari
– William Fields: Fluidity

Ruptured Label Mix for Radio Alhara’s Sonic Liberation Front #freepalestine // 04 June 2021

June 11, 2021July 9, 2021Music ShowsLeave a Comment

Ruptured Records Label Mix [2011-2021] – For RADIO ALHARA’s Sonic Liberation Front series:

1. Alko B – Some Things [Ruptured Session]
2. Postcards – Flying Saucers [Ruptured Session]
3. Charlie Rayne – Disposable Valentine [Ruptured Session]
4. Safar – Wa Namshi
5. The Bunny Tylers – It Seems It All Disappears
6. Kinematik – Al-Qulub Al-Mughallafa Bet-Turab La Tankaser
7. Mme Chandelier – Minimal Potato
8. Jad Atoui – Impulse [Ruptured Session]
9. Radiokvm – Alpha Apparatus
10. TEDTEDTED – Cama
11. Munma – Muse
12. Stellar Banger [Pablo Giw, Ali Hout, Abed Kobeissy and Joss Turnbull] – Sextant
13. Two or The Dragon – Dance Grooves for The Weary [excerpt]
14. Aya Metwalli – Istana [Senyawa Rework]
15. Fadi Tabbal – Crystal Palace
16. El Rass & Munma – Sanadet
17. Kid Fourteen – The Dancer

Ziad Nawfal Guest Mix for Radio Ma3azef // 26 May 2021

June 2, 2021June 2, 2021Music ShowsLeave a Comment

Ziad Nawfal’s monthly mix for Radio Ma3azef in Tunis:

1. Stellar Banger – Intro PREMIERE
2. Two or The Dragon – Dance Grooves for The Weary [excerpt] PREMIERE
3. Sharif Sehnaoui & Tony Elieh – Woe to Him [excerpt]
4. Liliane Chlela & Ziad Moukarzel – Dahr el Baydar [excerpt]
5. Anthony Sahyoun & Jad Atoui – Walls Don’t Blink [excerpt]
6. Fadi Tabbal & Julia Sabra – Roots
7. Elyse Tabet & Jawad Nawfal – Courbe Lisse
8. Charbel Haber & Sary Moussa – And Yet Another Romance on A Sinking Ship [excerpt]
9. Aya Metwalli & Nadia Daou – Saturnus [excerpt]

Ruptured Album Release // TWO OR THE DRAGON // Dance Grooves For The Weary EP

May 13, 2021September 17, 2023NewsLeave a Comment

RELEASING 21 MAY 2021 ON RUPTURED:

TWO OR THE DRAGON
Two or the Dragon is the electro-acoustic duo of Lebanese musicians Abed Kobeissy and Ali Hout. The project was initiated in 2014, when the two players were asked to compose scores for contemporary dance and theater performances. The duo’s unapologetic approach to traditional Arabic music hints at deconstruction, dance grooves, industry, satire and a deniable melancholy, in a manner reminiscent of early recordings by Einsturzende Neubauten, Laibach or Throbbbing Gristle.
Hout and Kobeissy approach Beirut’s industrial vistas both as a local aesthetic and a main element of their work: the unique sound of processed buzuq (Levantine long-necked lute) and percussion, combined with the two musicians’ rich background in traditional Arabic music, takes the sonic, visual and pseudo-political day-to-day that is Beirut and reflects it onto a hyper-realistic soundscape.

Rather than a contemporary rendering of traditional Arabic music, Two or The Dragon’s music is saturated with their city’s aural components. The restless din of Beirut plays a major role in shaping the duo’s aesthetic; from the drilling of ever-expanding construction sites, the cacophony of car horns in unpredictable traffic, the drone of randomly juxtaposed electricity generators powering an entire city, and the thousands of wandering tankers pumping water into apartment blocks. Colorful fields of raw noise evolve into soothing agents of amnesia, in an absurdly elongated post-war period.
“DANCE GROOVES FOR THE WEARY” marks a departure from Two or The Dragon’s usual trademarks. The prevailing attitude here is one of sobriety and caution, undoubtedly as a result of the events that started dismantling the fabric of Lebanese society, from October 2019 to the present day.

Kobeissy’s solo piece, on which this EP is based, was composed in the Fall of 2020, following THE most violent summer in Lebanon’s history. As “DANCE GROOVES FOR THE WEARY” progresses, the initial sense of sobriety and caution seems to have run its course. The physical detonation of the drum machine – an agent provocateur of sorts – paves the way for an emotionally charged finale, with faint traces of a Bizet melody and a grinding, distorted daf.
At the heart of this new work is a desire to provide solace for the megalomaniac, the tired, the frightened, the bored, and the hopeful alike. A slap in the face of Lebanon’s ongoing, undeterred collective amnesia.

Listen/Order HERE

Ruptured Album Release // STELLAR BANGER // Data Is EP

May 11, 2021September 17, 2023NewsLeave a Comment

RELEASING MAY 21ST ON RUPTURED:

STELLAR BANGER
Stellar Banger is an electro-acoustic quartet composed of Lebanese musicians Ali Hout and Abed Kobeissy and German musicians Pablo Giw and Joss Turnbull.
The roots of this unique collaboration were laid down during the 2019 iteration of Irtijal Festival in Beirut, when the four men played together for the first time following their respective festival sets. The next year, right before the eruption of the Coronavirus pandemic, they set about working on a set of concrete recordings, from their homes in Beirut, Berlin, Köln and Turin. The resulting, freeform pieces were reworked, stretched and recomposed under varying states of lockdown, over the course of six months and 28 highly kinetic Zoom meetings.

The approach behind Stellar Banger is one of complete musical freedom, away from pre-assigned functions of instrumental / cultural roles, oblivious to the borders separating acoustic and digital media. At the heart of the quartet’s creative process is the notion of instant composing; improvisation with an experimental mindset, drum machines and electronic beats used in an open and intuitive manner, creating an identifiable sonic identity and structure.
Influenced by the absurd realities of a world overridden by COVID-19, far-right politics and bloody popular uprisings, the music might seem chaotic at first; but hidden within a multi-matrix of patterns, rhythms and colors, an elusive yet imposing structure begins to emerge, a pulsating musical bed composed of grainy, poly-layered pink-noise eruptions.
A case in point would be lead track “Data Is,” a bewildering example of musical defragmentation, overlaying sample shreds, stutters and tremolo patterns, unraveling as a sonic reminder of pre-existing musical idioms. The track inexorably builds up and climaxes into a giant cluster of pixels and dots; an audiophiliac prophecy of digitization, set to ghostlike incantations of astronomical objects and cosmic junk data.

Stellar Banger survived COVID-19’s reign of terror and the tyranny of border controls thanks to instant voice messages. In this EP release, messages act as both musical tools and narrative elements. They document the difficulties undergone by band members traveling and attempting to meet under lockdown. Aural, often nonsensical snapshots of arguments at airports, border controls, in quarantine; a binary, intercontinental ballistic messenger of friendship, a conveyor of hope through music. An apt representation of today’s digital world.

Mixed by Pablo Giw.
Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk, Berlin.
Artwork by Murtey.