Ziad Nawfal Mix for Stegi Radio with guests SNAKESKIN // 07 October 2025

A monthly selection of alternative, ambient and experimental music from Lebanon and the MENA region, selected by music promoter and label owner Ziad Nawfal โ€“ this broadcast features a guest mix by Lebanese dreampop duo SNAKESKIN (Julia Sabra & Fadi Tabbal). Originally commissioned by Stegi Radio and produced by Onassis Stegi.

Snakeskin is a Beirut-based duo making electronic dreampop that incorporates ambient, industrial, and experimental elements. The project brings together producer and musician Fadi Tabbal and singer songwriter Julia Sabra, also a member of indie trio Postcards.
The duoโ€™s third album We live in sand will be released on October 10, 2025 as a co-release between Ruptured and Beacon Sound. Written as the war in Gaza spread to Lebanon, it is their starkest and most immediate work to date, combining industrial beats, ambient dirges, and Juliaโ€™s distinctive vocals.

TRACK LISTING:

1- Snakeskin: Ready
2- Nadah El Shazly: Kaabi Ali
3- Lucrecia Dalt: Caes (feat. Camille Mandoki)
4- SANAM: Goblin
5- Snakeskin: October sun
6- Kelly Moran: Donโ€™t Trust Mirrors
7- Sary Moussa: Everywhere at Once
8- Jerusalem In My Heart: Ana Lisan Wahad (feat. Farida Amadou & Pierre-Guy Blanchard)
9- Dina El Wedidi: The Moon
10- Gizzmo: A Change in the Seasons
11- Snakeskin: Blindsided
12- Mabe Fratti: Kravitz
13- Postcards: Poison
14- Blood Orange: Look at You
15- Snakeskin: Black water



Video still by Mohamad Abdouni

Press Review // Snakeskin // We live in sand

Acclaim for We live in sand, the latest album by Lebanese dreampop duo Snakeskin, released by Ruptured & Beacon Sound in October 2025:

“Snakeskin donโ€™t so much shed layers from release to release, they harden their resolve, reinforcing their messaging into songs which are even more powerful and defining… [They] have created an extraordinary sound document which is so poignant in these troubled times and which will remain enlightening for much longer.” โ€“ John Parry, Backseat Mafia https://www.backseatmafia.com/album-review-snakeskin-we-live-in-sand-enlightening-intense-dream-pop-from-the-ever-impressive-beirut-duo/

“With dark minimalism orchestrated from the bottom of the vortex, if We live in sand doesnโ€™t reduce you to tears, then youโ€™re probably hollow inside. The best art often comes from the darkest places; the same ones many of us will never encounter.” โ€“ Simon Kirk, Sun-13 https://sun-13.com/2025/10/10/snakeskin-we-live-in-sand/

“Thereโ€™s a chilling disconnect at the heart of Lebanese duo Snakeskinโ€™s third album, We live in sand: On the surface, their music invokes a lineage of wistfully melodic electronic pop. But once you dig into the albumโ€™s lyrics, a far bleaker scenario presents itself. Beneath the sweetness of the music, Sabra lays bare the tragedy playing out across the borderโ€”and on our screens, in our feeds, in our thoughts and consciences.” โ€“ Phil Sherburne via substack https://futurismrestated.substack.com/p/fr-140-spheres-nexuses-horizons

We live in sand is an emotionally weighty album, though itโ€™s also one in which the Lebanese duo manage to find beauty in the darkness.” โ€“ Shawn Reynaldo via substack https://firstfloor.substack.com/p/first-floor-285-money-matters

“Thereโ€™s an uncompromising authenticity to the album, presenting each track as a visceral interpretation of mourning. Amidst the starkness, hope could easily seem lost. Yet the albumโ€™s most powerful moments emerge in subtle but striking sparks of defiance and resilience; and that, in itself, is a form of hope.” โ€“ SceneNoise https://scenenoise.com/New-Music/Snakeskin-s-We-Live-in-Sand-Captures-Hope-Amidst-Destruction

“Thereโ€™s an atmosphere of grief, anger and frustration throughout, but as with so much of the music Sabra and Tabbal make โ€” together or separately โ€” there is hope here too.” โ€“ Arab News https://www.arabnews.com/node/2619195/lifestyle

“Over a decade of collaboration, producer Fadi Tabbal and singer-songwriter Julia Sabra have sculpted a sound that is both melancholic and radiant: a haunting palette of reflection, collapse and resistance that keeps developing in their new album We live in sand.” โ€“ Le Guess Who? https://leguesswho.com/news/snakeskin-new-album

“The provisional nature of life in a country touched by war has infused all of Snakeskinโ€™s music with an urgent beauty, made of dream-state laments, elegiac organ drones and the glitch and glitter of electronic pop beats.” โ€“ Dusted Magazine https://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/796850309807882240/snakeskin-we-live-in-sand-rupturedbeacon

Featured in Will Hermes New Music + Old Music substack: https://newmusicoldmusic.substack.com/p/singing-the-unspoken

Utility Fog broadcast on FBi Radio by Peter Hollo: https://www.fbi.radio/programs/utility-fog/episodes/utility-fog-28th-september-2025


Listen/Order


Photo by Mohamad Abdouni

Ruptured News // Snakeskin European tour // Nov. 2025

Nov 04 Berlin, Germany โ€“ Morphine Raum
Nov 06 Zutphen, The Netherlands โ€“ Modka Beiroet
Nov 08 Utrecht, The Netherlands โ€“ Le Guess Who?
Nov 09 Ghent, Belgium โ€“ Groot Begijnhof Church
Nov 12 Paris, France โ€“ Les Relais Solidaires
Nov 13 Oslo, Norway โ€“ Kafe Haerverk
Nov 14 Amsterdam, The Netherlands โ€“ Murmur



WE LIVE IN SAND: Listen/Order


Ruptured Album Release // SNAKESKIN // We live in sand


Out 10 October 2025 via Ruptured and Beacon Sound

We live in sand is the 3rd album from SNAKESKIN, the Beirut-based duo of Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal.

Written in October 2024, just as Israelโ€™s genocidal assault on Gaza fully spread to Lebanon and finally reached Beirut, the album is their darkest and rawest yet, exploring what it feels like to wait, to love, to grieve, and to keep living while the world falls apart. Pairing Tabbalโ€™s masterful production with Sabraโ€™s vivid imagery and evocative singing, the duo, as Resident Advisor put it, mines โ€œdeep emotional depths by tempering dream popโ€™s sweet-natured reverie with experimental snarl.โ€ Bearing witness to impossible events, We live in sand is a complex and nuanced work, balancing forward-thinking pop sensibilities with relentless realism and a poetic spirit of empathy.

Composed, performed and produced by Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal between Beirut and Bern. Lyrics by Julia Sabra. Drum samples by Pascal Semerdjian.

Mixed by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh at Hotel2Tango, Montreal. Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering, Montreal.

Album art, band portrait, and โ€œOctober sunโ€ video by Mohamad Abdouni. Design by Josette Khalil.

This album is the third volume in the Corrosion Series, a collaborative effort by Beacon Sound in Portland and Ruptured in Beirut.

Thank you for listening and supporting.



LISTEN / ORDER


Photo by Mohamad Abdouni

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

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 Arms ย 

THEY KEPT OUR PHOTOGRAPHS: Listen/Order (Ruptured)ย 

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


WATCH the video for “Bodies”

Ziad Nawfal Guest Mix for Radio Alhara // We Out Here x Worldwide FM // 13 June 2024

Ziad Nawfal contributed a 60mn mix to Radio Alharaโ€™s takeover for UK online radio WORLDWIDE FMย on Thursday 13 June 2024.

Full lineup: https://worldwidefm.net/episode/we-out-here-x-worldwide-fm-a-celebration-of-community-radio

Ziad’s track list:
โ€œI was convinced that an atom of your love could keep me goingโ€

1. Sandy Chamoun – Soukoun Mouwhesh
2. Charbel Haber & Sary Moussa – An Atom of Your Love
3. FRKTL – Hรกttatal
4. Nadah El Shazly – End Credit
5. Nancy Mounir – Gannentini (feat. Zaki Murad)
6. Farah Kaddour – Mad ou Jazr
7. Natik Awayez – Manbarani
8. Hassan Khan – Tabla Dubb No.15
9. Maurice Louca – Yara’ (Fire Flies)
10. Sanam – Aykathani Malakon (An Angel Woke Me)
11. Tasjiil Moujahed – Blue Mirror
12. Bana Haffar – Elemental
13. Nร‚R – MIMOUNE II
14. Marc Codsi – The Savior



Ziad Nawfal Guest Mix for Radio Alhara // Fadi Tabbal Showcase // 15 May 2024

Ziad Nawfalโ€™s monthly broadcast forย Radio Alhara in Bethlehem, Palestine โ€” playing Lebanese musician & producer Fadi Tabbalโ€™s latest album in full, along with a selection of some of his recent production work.

Track List:

FADI TABBAL โ€” I RECOGNIZE YOU FROM MY SKETCHES
1. (keep beating)
2. Absence or death
3. Oh Heart!
4. Oh heart, are you burning
5. All those nights
6. You were right
7. (keep pumping)
8. When we swam together
9. (keep thumping)
10. I am all that is left
+
11. Snakeskin (Julia Sabra & Fadi Tabbal) – Snakeskin
12. Elyse Tabet – Sequel / live to tell (with Nadine Makarem)
13. Charbel Haber & Fadi Tabbal – La certitude de lโ€™aube
14. Charbel Haber, Joseph Ghosn, Fadi Tabbal – In A Technicolor Dream, You and I Were Floating in The Caspian Sea
15. Mayssa Jallad – Holiday Inn March 21 to 29
16. Postcards – Coins (with Sary Moussa)



Ziad Nawfal Mix for Stegi Radio with guest FADI TABBAL // 03 April 2024

A monthly selection of alternative, ambient and experimental music from Lebanon and the MENA region, selected by music promoter and label owner Ziad Nawfal โ€“ this broadcast features a guest mix byย Lebanese musician, producer and studio owner FADI TABBAL. Originally commissioned by Stegi Radio and produced by Onassis Stegi.

Lebanese musician, producer and sound engineer Fadi Tabbalโ€™s work consists of guitar pieces ranging from stripped acoustics to ambient and shoegazing-inspired treatments. Aside from his solo output and management of Tunefork Studios in Beirut, he is a full-time member of several Lebanese indie rock bands, including The Incompetents and The Bunny Tylers, as well as electronic duos Stress Distress and Snakeskin.

  1. CEPย Lilians Pavilion
  2. KELLY MORANย Butterfly Phase
  3. AMOR MUEREย Shhhhh
  4. YARA ASMARย It Is 5-00pm And Nothing Bad Has Happened To Us (Yet)
  5. SARAH DAVACHIย Play The Ghost
  6. LUCRECIA DALTย Revuelta
  7. KALI MALONEย All Life Long (for organ)
  8. JULIA SABRAย Three Days
  9. GROUPERย Living Room
  10. ANA ROXANNEย Camille
  11. MARINA HERLOPย Karada
  12. ELLEN ARKBROย Mountain of Air
  13. GIA MARGARETย Cicadas
  14. LAUREL HALOย Belleville


Ziad Nawfal Mix for Stegi Radio with guest MAYSSA JALLAD // 05 March 2024

A monthly selection of alternative, ambient and experimental music from Lebanon and the MENA region, selected by music promoter and label owner Ziad Nawfal โ€“ this broadcast features a guest mix by Lebanese musician MAYSSA JALLAD. Originally commissioned by Stegi Radio and produced by Onassis Stegi.

Mayssa Jallad is a Beirut-based bilingual singer-songwriter, architectural researcher andย teacher, born in 1990. Her work deals with the highly personal as well as the political, as with her first solo album โ€œMarjaa: The Battle of the Hotelsโ€, which explores the histories of urban battles that occurred before she was born, during the Lebanese Civil War, through a collaborative musical and architectural lens.

  1. DAKN & MUQATAโ€™Aย Fi Miโ€™ad
  2. SNAKESKIN All The Birds
  3. MITSKIย Heaven
  4. YOUMNA SABAย Ahad
  5. FARAH KADDOURย Estehlฤl
  6. VAMPI & NADAH EL-SHAZLYย Myst
  7. RAHILLย Tell Me
  8. DRAGONCHILDย Unicode 1200
  9. MARC CODSIย The Dance
  10. DEENA ABDELWAHEDย Each Day
  11. JENNY HVALย Year Of Love
  12. SARY MOUSSA & CHARBEL HABERย An Atom Of Your Love
  13. NABIHAH IQBALย Dreamer
  14. SANAMย Shajar Al-Touti
  15. CLAIRE DEAKย Quarrel Of The Senses
  16. MAYSSA JALLADย Haigazian (October 22)


Portrait of Mayssa taken in Beirut by Mohamad Al-Rifai

Ziad Nawfal Mix for Stegi Radio with guest RAMI ABI RAFI // 06 February 2024

A monthly selection of alternative, ambient and experimental music from Lebanon and the MENA region, selected by music promoter and label owner Ziad Nawfal โ€“ this broadcast features a guest mix by Berlin-based Lebanese DJ, sound artist and photographer RAMI ABI RAFI. Originally commissioned by Stegi Radio and produced by Onassis Stegi.

In Rami’s own words: โ€œIn this broadcast entitled INSIJAM, meaning ‘harmony’ in Arabic, the essence of chances and encounters takes center stage. Combining musique concrรจte with traditional Arabic sounds, the performance shifts between experimental, avant-garde, spoken word, field recordings, and improvised jazz.ย INSIJAM represents my perspective on the beauty of diverse musical encounters.โ€

  1. ร‰LIANE RADIGUE – Adnos I
  2. PHILL NIBLOCK – Didjeridoos and Donโ€™ts
  3. PAULINE OLIVEROS – Time Perspectives
  4. BANA HAFFAR – Ahl Al Samaa’
  5. RAED YASSIN – Black Risotto With Razor Clams
  6. TWO OR THE DRAGON – Dance Grooves For The Weary -Part I-
  7. FRANZ HAUTZINGER & MAZEN KERBAJ – Kalash 1
  8. RASHAD BECKER – matraquage
  9. RELร‚CHE ENSEMBLE – Paul Epstein, “Three Songs from Home
  10. NADAH EL SHAZLY – Breakup By The Sea
  11. MARGARET LENG TAN – Dream
  12. โ€˜Aโ€™ TRIO – Kazdoura
  13. JANA WINDEREN – Live in Den Haag
  14. LAURIE SPIEGEL – Music for Dance II
  15. YOUMNA SABA – Al khayal ุงู„ุฎูŠุงู„
  16. SNAKESKIN (JULIA SABRA & FADI TABBAL) – Past Tense
  17. FAIRUZ –ย Nassam Alayna El-Hawa