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.
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).
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. Marmalsana [Burkhard Beins, Tony Elieh & Maurice Louca] – Inundo
2. Youmna Saba – Akaleel
3. Yara Asmar – Are These Your Hands? Would You Like Them Back? (With Majd Chidiac)
4. Marmalsana [Burkhard Beins, Tony Elieh & Maurice Louca] – Alveno
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 Julia’s words, “I 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 would’ve probably stayed in my ‘songs in limbo’ folder on my laptop had it not been for Pascal and Fadi, who pushed me to release them. And for this I’m eternally grateful.”
WATCH the video for “Skyscape” [Directed by Camille Cabbabé]
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 — it was an exercise to write a song based on Genesis Baez’s photo Skyscape. “All 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.”
Mayssa Jallad will play a short European tour in November 2023, in support of her latest album Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels.
Confirmed performances include Oslo World Festival in Oslo, Norway and Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands. She will be accompanied by Julia Sabra (Snakeskin, Postcards) and Pascal Semerdjian (Postcards, Sanam).
Releasing November 3rd, 2023 – a joint release by Ruptured and Six of Swords
Lebanese singer/songwriter Mayssa Jallad’s first solo album. A poetic reflection on Beirut’s War of the Hotels, one of the bloodiest events of Lebanon’s Civil War.
The vinyl edition of ‘Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels’ is co-released by Beirut-based label Ruptured and UK newcomer Six of Swords. It is pressed in a limited edition of 300 copies, with a limited D2C edition containing download coupon and a full-colour, double-sided 34 x 68cm art print on 150gsm wood-free paper with map, 3D diagrams and timeline depicting the historical events of the battle.
Mayssa will play a short European tour in November, including performances at Oslo World in Sweden and Le Guess Who? in The Netherlands.
“In the end, the album, like the city on which it is based, feels like an infinite loop of history, relayed through the brave yet saintly voice of an artist who has taken the task of documenting the past through music.” – Christina Hazboun, Bandcamp daily.bandcamp.com/features/mayssa-jallad-marjaa-battle-of-the-hotels-interview
“It’s an album with everything; vital history, experimental melodicism, inventive structures, mountains of emotion, and Jallad’s stunning voice. There is so much to learn, so much to hear.” – Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis
“In an overwhelmingly creative and critical act, Mayssa Jallad turns the destruction of the Lebanese Civil War into a stunning, two-sided album driven by poetic songwriting mixed with historical narration, lush strings and synths, gentle drones, and her incredible vocal prowess.” – Maha El-Nabawy, SceneNoise
Releasing March 3rd, 2023 on Ruptured Records: Lebanese singer/songwriter Mayssa Jallad’s first solo album. A poetic reflection on Beirut’s War of the Hotels, one of the bloodiest events of Lebanon’s Civil War.
“Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels” is a concept album born of the idea of merging singer/songwriter Mayssa Jallad’s two vocations: music and urban research/architectural history. Written in collaboration with producer Fadi Tabbal, the music builds upon Tabbal’s spatial approach to sound and Jallad’s research on Beirut’s Hotel District.
The album is a reference to Jallad’s Historic Preservation master’s thesis, in which she detailed the history of the “Battle of the Hotels”, a 5-months battle that took place in Beirut at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, from October 22nd, 1975 to March 29th, 1976.
Jallad saw architecture as a main protagonist of the battle, as she discovered it was the first high rise urban battle in the world. The close of the battle resulted in the 15-year Green Line, an urban rift which split Beirut into “East and West”, restricting movement and communication and creating a violent divide that still resonates today.
“Marjaa” comprises two parts. Part A: Dahaliz, is a stroll in the city, where Jallad tries (and fails) to follow an old map. Musician Youmna Saba is a companion in this journey of remembering the once winding corridors (“Dahaliz”) of the city, destroyed by new developments since the 1960s. Empty skyscrapers propel her onto a past filled with the violence of snipers, and a present filled with the glamorous injustice of empty luxury real estate endorsed by powerful warlords-turned-politicians.
In Part B: Maaraka, Jallad inhabits the building of the Battle of the Hotels, as its events unfold. She calls the fighting militias the Blues and Reds, respectively the Lebanese Front (Christian Nationalists) and the Lebanese National Movement (Pro-Palestinian leftists), leveling the playing field, and drawing a map of the battle through songwriting. Sary Moussa produces the conclusion of the battle in “Holiday Inn (March 21 to 29)”, which ends with the ultimate severance of the city of Beirut.
The music caters to post-war youth who have never been taught this difficult history. Once we consider the “Battle of the Hotels” as our common heritage, it provides an opportunity to teach the value of civil peace. It is also a call to protest for the renewal, rather than the recycling of the political class that has once destroyed the country and holds us, to this day, hostage of its violence.
Featuring Youmna Saba, Marwan Tohme, Pascal Semerdjian, Julia Sabra, Farah Kaddour, Sary Moussa, Yara Asmar and Fadi Tabbal.
Available as a digital album and limited edition vinyl LP (in collaboration with Six of Swords in the UK).
Ziad Nawfal’s monthly mix for Movement Radio in Athens, featuring music from Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, the UK and the USA. This mix was commissioned and produced by Onassis Cultural Center, and presented for the first time in the frame of MOVEMENT RADIO.
1. SANDY CHAMOUN – Ahlam al khayal [LB]
2. BENNU [PIE ARE SQUARED & PYLON&ON&ON] – Asteroid Walk [EG]
3. 700 BLISS [DJ HARAM & MOOR MOTHER] – Basic [US/UK]
4. SAFA – Bel Abbes [LB]
5. POSTCARDS – Coins (with Sary Moussa) [LB]
6. TEDTEDTED – Dancerep [LB]
7. AZU TIWALINE – Deep Theko [TN]
8. MUQATA’A – Dijla Wal Fada’ [PS]
9. MUSLIMGAUZE – An End [UK]
10. MOHAMMAD REZA MORTAZAVI – Exploring [IR]
11. JULMUD – Fel Bo2s [PS]
12. TOUMBA – Floating on The Dead Sea [JO]
13. SOTE – Forced Absence [IR]
14. ASIFEH – Oxygen Deluxe [PS]
Ziad Nawfal’s monthly mix for Movement Radio in Athens, featuring music from Lebanon, Egypt, Belgium and Canada. This mix was commissioned and produced by Onassis Cultural Center, and presented for the first time in the frame of MOVEMENT RADIO.
Jerusalem In My Heart – Ana Lisan Wahad (feat. Farida Amadou & Pierre-Guy Blanchard) [LB/CA/BE]
Ruptured Music 