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

Press Review // Postcards // Ripe

May 5, 2025May 6, 2025Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

Acclaim for Ripe, the latest album by Lebanese shoegaze trio Postcards, released by Ruptured in April 2025:

“On a foundation of what many would consider shoegaze and dream-pop, while the band has moved sonically with each release, the Postcards remit has been held together by the emotive storytelling of Sabra, and on Ripe it reaches a crescendo. Fraught with tension and the chaos that overshadows everyday life in Lebanon, Postcards frame it through song; and while you can certainly draw a line to this in previous works, on Ripe the band are at their all-encompassing best, reaching new levels.” – Simon Kirk, Sun-13 https://sun-13.com/2025/03/27/the-long-road-in-conversation-with-postcards-julia-sabra-pascal-semerdjian/#more-27934

“If previous Postcards albums were drenched in reverb-soaked melancholy, Ripe is what happens when that sadness curdles into fury. It is an album of contradictions: lush but raw, defiant yet wounded, intimate while also sounding like the collapse of a city.” – Chain DLK
https://www.chaindlk.com/reviews/12752

“Postcards channel this violence into their music, crafting dreamlike landscapes where guitars cut through the canvas like blades. Ripe is born from pain and uncertainty, an album of defiance that blends brutality and vulnerability, noise and melody. Like a lighthouse in the fog, it searches (in vain?) for a possible way out.” – Ondarock
https://www.ondarock.it/recensioni/2025-postcards-ripe.htm

“This is the soundtrack of burning youth, cigarettes over cityscapes, and late-night existential spirals. With the current situation in Gaza and Lebanon, the album takes on an even deeper resonance, its rawness mirroring the heartbreak, rage, and resilience of a region constantly on edge.” – Scene Noise
https://scenenoise.com/New-Music/Postcards-Ripe-Is-a-Love-Hate-Letter-to-Beirut

“A project of sharp contrasts and blinding sweetness, Postcards manage to sound both angelic and nervy, shifting seamlessly between storm-like intensity and moments of pure, hushed beauty (…) Ripe is a rare surprise — an album that sustains curiosity with substance, style, and flashes of emotional clarity across its ten tracks.” – Sodapop
https://www.sodapop.it/phnx/postcards-ripe-ruptured-t3-2025/

“A darker, more punk-infused take on shoegaze.” – CDM
https://cdm.link/postcards-from-lebanon-telling-the-worlds-story/

“Until now, the band was known for its mesmerizing blend of dreampop and shoegaze, carried by Julia Sabra’s airy voice floating over layers of synths. But with *Ripe*, the guitars storm into the space with fury. The trio’s sound becomes sharper, more cutting. The drums gallop, Marwan Tohme’s bass rumbles, and from this turmoil emerges a refrain that haunts the album’s opening track, ‘I Stand Corrected,’ echoing like a mantra throughout the record: ‘Destroy, rebuild, you know the drill.” – Djolo Cultures d’Afrique https://djolo.net/ripe-5eme-album-postcards-ne-dans-colere/

“A recent batch of new material from the Beirut label Ruptured just arrived at the shop. And though it is a challenge to single out just one release, my heart keeps returning to the fifth album from shoegaze trio Postcards. Ripe fills each gushing moment of this album with devastating imagery of smoldering buildings, poisoned blood, and barren shorelines. A challenging, shattering, necessary listen.” – Robert Ham, For The Record https://www.wweek.com/music/2025/04/22/for-the-record/

“On previous releases, we heard echoes of various influences, but on Ripe, the band’s own voice comes through more clearly—the album’s title couldn’t have been better chosen. Ripe is a beautifully balanced record with a sound that leaves a lasting impression. Singer/guitarist Julia Sabra soothes at times with her warm, gentle voice, but she can also unleash its full power, perfectly complementing the driving rhythm section of drummer Pascal Semerdjian and bassist/guitarist Marwan Tohme.” – Luminous Dash https://luminousdash.be/reviews/postcards-ripe-ruptured-t3-records/#google_vignette

Adventures in Sound & Music x Resonance FM broadcast by Shane Woolman for The Wire Magazine: https://shanewoolman.uk/ana-lua-caiano-guest-mix/

Utility Fog broadcast on FBi Radio by Peter Hollo: https://www.fbi.radio/programs/utility-fog/episodes/utility-fog-16th-march-2025

Featured in Premonition broadcast: https://www.premo.fr/transmission/Deux-Cent-Trente-Septieme-Tentative/237

Listen/Order

Ruptured News // Snakeskin announces European dates // April-May 2025

March 13, 2025March 6, 2025NewsLeave a Comment

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)

*THEY KEPT OUR PHOTOGRAPHS: Listen/Order (Mais Um Discos)***

WATCH the video for “Bodies”

Ruptured Album Release // POSTCARDS // Ripe

March 6, 2025March 6, 2025NewsLeave a Comment

Releasing March 28, 2025 on Ruptured Records:

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.

RIPE: Listen/Order here

Photo by Nessim Stevenson

Ruptured News // Mayssa Jallad live on KEXP // December 2024

February 25, 2025February 25, 2025NewsLeave a Comment

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.

MARJAA: Listen/Order (Ruptured)

MARJAA: Listen/Order (Six of Swords)

Press Review // Fadi Tabbal // I recognize you from my sketches

February 14, 2025May 5, 2025Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

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/

Adventures in Sound & Music x Resonance FM broadcast by Shane Woolman for The Wire Magazine (with a guest mix by Fadi Tabbal):
https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/fadi-tabbal-guest-mix

Pacific Notions x KEXP broadcast by Alex Ruder:
https://www.kexp.org/shows/pacific-notions/

Featured in Battiti’s broadcast “How We Roll” for RAI3:
https://www.raiplaysound.it/audio/2025/02/

Featured in Battiti’s broadcast “Rime Ignoranti” for RAI3:
https://www.raiplaysound.it/audio/2025/02/

Listen/Order

Ziad Nawfal Mix for Stegi Radio with guest SANDY CHAMOUN // 03 December 2024

January 10, 2025August 13, 2025Music ShowsLeave a Comment

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

Press Review // Julia Sabra // Natural History Museum

January 1, 2025May 5, 2025Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

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

Listen/Order

Ziad Nawfal Mix for Stegi Radio // 05 November 2024

December 6, 2024January 8, 2025Music ShowsLeave a Comment

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. Azu Tiwaline – Long Hypnosis

2. Deena Abdelwahed – Complain

3. Use Knife – Coup d’état (Muqata’a مقاطعة Remix)

4. Nour Sokhon – The destruction and the rebuilding

5. Ralph Chbeir – Olive Trees

6. Kid Fourteen – Learning How to Die

7. SANAM – Mouathibatti (Live at Cafe Oto)

8. Nadah El Shazly – Mausoleum

9. Julia Sabra – Minor Detail

10. Fatima Al Qadiri – Medieval Femme

11. Los Panteros (Tony Elieh & Aya Metwalli) – Ya Tayren Tayer يا طيرٍ طاير

12. Yara Asmar – Cold Feet And Hot Air Balloons

Ruptured News // Mayssa Jallad announces French live dates // December 2024

November 18, 2024January 1, 2025NewsLeave a Comment

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). She will be accompanied on stage by Julia Sabra (Postcards, Snakeskin) and Pascal Semerdjian (Postcards, SANAM, Préfaces).

Dec. 05 – Les Champs Libres, Transmusicales de Rennes, Rennes (followed by a talk with Amani Semaan, director of Beirut & Beyond International Music Festival)
Dec. 06 – UBU Rennes, Transmusicales de Rennes, Rennes
Dec. 08 – Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
Dec. 13 – Théâtre du Bois de l’Aune, Aix en Provence