Cedrik Fermont – Ruptured Music

Ruptured Album Release // MOOSE TERRIFIC [Sam Shalabi, Tamara Filyavich] // Nude Beginnings

July 27, 2024November 18, 2024NewsLeave a Comment

Releasing July 19th, 2024 on Ruptured Records:

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 duo’s 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 artists’ 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 Tamayugé 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 70’s, 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.

Listen/Order here

Ruptured Album Release // Munma + Jad Atoui, Jawad Nawfal, Sharif Sehnaoui

February 29, 2024September 4, 2024NewsLeave a Comment

In February 2024, we released two new albums by Lebanese electronic producer Jawad Nawfal aka Munma. TRANSIENT ORGAN is the first physical solo release by Jawad Nawfal since 2016’s landmark full-length Three Voices. The music on the album was composed by Nawfal between November 2021 and September 2023, in bouts of fractured creativity punctuated by frequent power cuts in his native city of Beirut. Transient Organ features the voice of regular Munma collaborator Caroline Tabet, whose evocative spoken word poetry appears on two tracks. Tabet also provided the drawing that graces the cover of the album. Mastered by Cedrik Fermont in Berlin, designed by Maya Chami in Beirut. Transient Organ is available as a digital album and limited release cassette of 40 copies, printed and duplicated in Montreal, Canada. Listen/Order: rupturedthelabel.bandcamp.com/album/transient-organ

MODERN INDIVIDUAL is the first recorded collaboration between Jawad Nawfal and Lebanese experimental musicians Jad Atoui (NP, Kinematik Ensemble) and Sharif Sehnaoui (‘A’ Trio, Calamita). The music on this album was composed and performed by Atoui, Nawfal and Sehnaoui in Beirut, between January and August 2023. Mastered by Cedrik Fermont in Berlin, designed by Maya Chami in Beirut. Modern Individual is available as a digital album and limited release cassette of 40 copies, printed and duplicated in Montreal, Canada. Listen/Order: rupturedthelabel.bandcamp.com/album/modern-individual

Ruptured Album Release // SAFA // Hometown [Original Score]

October 1, 2023November 2, 2023NewsLeave a Comment

Releasing 06 October 2023 on Ruptured:

Mhamad Safa is a musician, architect and researcher, based between London and Beirut. Safa’s work focuses on multi-scalar spatial conditions and their sonic make-ups. He conveys these auditory inquiries by assembling sound design, micro-sampling, algorithmic sound technology, synthesis, psychoacoustics, field recordings, and their graphic interpretations. His debut album The Subtleties of Elevated Things was released in 2018 by Amsterdam-based label Modular Mind, and second album Ibtihalat was released in 2022 by UIQ in the UK. Besides composing music for films and sound installations, he was part of multiple publications and music compilations. Safa had shown individual and collaborative artwork and performances at Goethe Institute in Beirut, Arab Center for Architecture, Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, the Institute for Contemporary Art in London, the Centre for Research Architecture in London, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Bergen Assembly in Norway, The Showroom in London, Café Oto in London among others.

The music on Hometown was produced for the video installation of the same title by Dutch collective Metahaven, shot between Beirut and Kyiv in 2017. The film conjures notions of land, technology, and fiction through an endlessly morphing reality of living conditions. Seen through the lens of two protagonists, Hometown depicts their uncertain and distorted relationship to geographic affinities, and the intimate memories embedded within the landscape.
The original score emerged out of a continuous exchange of images, scripts, and poetry between Safa and Metahaven, evolving into an overall sonic narrative. The composition highlights the protagonists’ struggle to access memory while situating it within their spatial and networked conditions. Evolving from processed soundscapes, stretched micro-samples and feedbacks, this assemblage weaves together a sense of forgetting with tacit spatial knowledge. Percussive and rhythmic structures drew from patterns inherent to computational systems and technologies of visibility, omnipresent in the film.

Music composed and produced by Mhamad Safa in Beirut in 2017-2018.
Mixed by Mhamad Safa, except for tracks 5 and 8 mixed by Jad Atoui.
Mastered by Cedrik Fermont at Syrphe, Berlin.

Available as a digital album and limited cassette with download code.

Listen/Order on Bandcamp

Ruptured Album Release // ELYSE TABET with Pascal Semerdjian and Yara Asmar // Low Toms Bright Bells And Darkest Spells

December 2, 2022September 17, 2023NewsLeave a Comment

Releasing December 2nd, 2022 on Ruptured Records:
Acclaimed Lebanese producer Elyse Tabet’s first full-length release for Ruptured, featuring rising talent Yara Asmar and seasoned sessionist Pascal Semerdjian from shoegaze trio Postcards.

ELYSE TABET is a Lebanese audiovisual artist and electronic musician. She works with recorded and synthesized sound to create electro-acoustic landscapes and deconstructed rhythmics, drawing her inspiration from musique concrète, ambient, industrial electronica, dub and garage beats. Elyse began working in the field of audiovisual interaction in the early 2000s, mainly as a videographer for live performances and DJ sets. She has collaborated on projects with electronic producer Jawad Nawfal, drummer and producer Nabil Saliba, electronic musician Yangfan Li, video artist Maureen Castera, and Lisbon-based artist and curator Violeta Lisboa. Elyse is a co-founder of the Beirut Synthesizer Center.

Low Toms Bright Bells and Darkest Spells is Elyse’s third release, following Newfound Grids on Berlin-based Syrphe in 2013 and Coast on Beirut-based label VV-VA in 2020, the latter a duo with Lebanese musician Jawad Nawfal.

Music composed by Elyse Tabet with Yara Asmar and Pascal Semerdjian.
Recorded in December 2021 and January 2022 by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios, Beirut.
Mixed and produced by Elyse Tabet, with additional mixing by Fadi Tabbal. Mastered by Cedrik Fermont at Syrphe, Berlin.

Available as a digital album.

Listen/Order HERE

LISTEN

Ruptured Music · Elyse Tabet – Low Toms Bright Bells and Darkest Spells [Ruptured, 2022]

(2021 end-of-year lists) – CEDRIK FERMONT

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.

CEDRIK FERMONT

– Tongue Depressor: Fiddle Music [vol. 7]
– Aisha Orazbayeva: Slow Change
– Dave Phillips: A Collection of Excuses
– Rastko Lazic: Sketches
– Leider: A Fog Like Liars Loving
– The Pond: Turchesi Miracolosi
– Pé: As Honor Was on Its Last Leg
– Various Artists: Noise à Noise 21.1
– Various Artists: Istimrar Phase 1
– Various Artists: We Continue on Our Journey Through the Universe

Ziad Nawfal Guest Mix for Movement Radio – VVVA Edition // 09 September 2021

September 25, 2021October 16, 2022Music ShowsLeave a Comment

Ziad Nawfal’s monthly mix for Movement Radio in Athens – showcasing Lebanese digital electronic label VV-VA. This mix was commissioned and produced by Onassis Cultural Center, and presented for the first time in the frame of MOVEMENT RADIO.

1. Charbel Haber & Jawad Nawfal – Across The River Styx
2. Jad Atoui & Jawad Nawfal – Amber Color
3. Elyse Tabet & Jawad Nawfal – At The Gay Bar Being Gay
4. Sharif Sehnaoui & Jawad Nawfal – Castle
5. Jawad Nawfal – Between Scylla and Charybdis
6. Anthony Sahyoun & Jawad Nawfal – February 2 pt.2
7. Jawad Nawfal – Nine Hundred Chariots
8. Mazen El Sayed & Jawad Nawfal – Liquid Sun
9. Jad Atoui – Signals
10. Jad Atoui & Jawad Nawfal – Vice Versa
11. Mazen El Sayed & Jawad Nawfal – Pastless
12. Elyse Tabet & Jawad Nawfal – Courbe Lisse

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

Ziad Nawfal Guest Mix for Radio Ma3azef // 10 March 2021

March 17, 2021March 22, 2021Music ShowsLeave a Comment

Ziad Nawfal’s monthly mix for Radio Ma3azef in Tunis – SENYAWA REDUX

A mix of tracks by Indonesian art-rock duo Senyawa from the last decade, including several excerpts from digital compilation “Alkisah Remixed”, released in February 2021 by Beirut labels Ruptured & Annihaya:

1. Senyawa – Fasih
2. Senyawa – Alkisah I (Cedrik Fermont Remix)
3. Stephen O’Malley & Senyawa – Bima dan Ular Naga, Part I
4. Senyawa – Di Kala Sudah
5. Senyawa – Istana (Aya Metwalli Remix)
6. Senyawa – Gugur
7. Senyawa – brønshøj 4
8. Senyawa – Kekuasaan (Anthony Sahyoun Remix) [Unreleased]
9. Senyawa – Kembali Ke Dunia (Return to The World)
10. Senyawa – Kabau (Stephanie Merchak Ambient Remix)
11. Wukir Suriyadi – Solo Performance in Bali
12. Senyawa – Kiamat (Jana Saleh Remix)

Ruptured News // MUSIC RELIEF FOR BEIRUT #1: Berlin

August 14, 2020September 5, 2020News1 Comment

In the aftermath of the August 4th explosion in Beirut, which left several hundred people dead, thousands injured, and resulted in city-wide material damage, several labels and platforms have started releasing compilations in support of the crisis.

Berlin-based label Syrphe Records, a platform for experimental and noise music from Asia and Africa, put out four compilations entitled Retrieving Beirut, with music by 94 acts from 40 countries. Featured genres include ambient, drone, techno, prog rock and industrial. Proceeds will be offered to one or more Lebanese charities.

Read Scene Noise‘s review of Retrieving Beirut here.
Buy Retrieving Beirut here.

Lebanese musician Rabih Beaini released The Sacred Rage on his label Morphine Records. The 12-track compilation features new tracks by the likes of German musicians Monolake and Rashad Becker, Lebanese musicians ‘A’ Trio, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, and Beaini himself. All proceeds will go to organisations working on the ground in Beirut.

Read CDM’s review of The Sacred Rage here.
Buy The Sacred Rage here.

Solidarity With Beirut from the Berlin-based label Habibi Funk features seven cuts by artists from Beirut, including Roger Fakhr, revered band Ferkat Al Ard and Munir Khauli, whose track, “Heik Ha Nishtghil?,” was recorded in the mid-’80s. All proceeds from the compilation will go to the Lebanese Red Cross.

Read Scene Noise‘s review of Solidarity With Beirut here.
Buy Solidarity With Beirut here.

KIRDEC // Ruptured Session // 10 January 2011

January 17, 2011June 12, 2024Live On AirLeave a Comment

Belgian xxperimental musician & producer CEDRIK FERMONT aka KIRDEC was the first guest of RUPTURES in 2011, for a live performance and extensive interview, detailing the processes of his approach in various fields of electronic music.

Listen:
Cdrik Ruptures part 1
+
Cdrik Ruptures part 2

Track listing:
Tetraplok
Axiome (C-drik & Olivier Moreau)
C-drik
Ammo
Kirdec