Ziad Nawfal Mix for Stegi Radio with guest FATEN KANAAN // 02 December 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 – this broadcast features a guest mix by musician and composer FATEN KANAAN. Originally commissioned by Stegi Radio and produced by Onassis Stegi.

Faten Kanaan is a composer whose work uses counterpoint as a narrative tool to craft music that is mysterious, smudgy, and deeply melodic. Of Syrian, Palestinian, Jordanian, and Lebanese heritage, Kanaan was born in Germany, grew up between Europe and the Middle East, and is now based in Amman, Jordan. Recent concerts have included appearances supporting Alessandro Cortini, Colin Stetson, Blonde Redhead, and William Basinski.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Broadcast – Monica (Berberian Sound Studio)*
2. Zbigniew Preisner – Alexandre (La double vie de Véronique)*
3. Farah Kaddour & Marwan Tohme – Ghazel
4. Kitka – D-oi rgăoa (Romanian)
5. Ellie Wilson – Sanctuary
6. Carter Burwell – Theme from Blood Simple*
7. Os Mutantes – Le premier bonheur du jour
8. Wadi el Safi – Daq bab el beit (excerpt)
9. Hikaru Hayashi – Theme de l’eau (L’ile nue)*
10. Marcel Khalife – My Song (excerpt)
11. Martien Keesmaat – Erik Satie – Danses de travers
12. Faten Kanaan – Book of Changes
13. Park Hye Ri – Strange Sun (Boys Over Flowers – excerpt)*
14. Fadi Tabbal – And Then…
15. Basiani Ensemble – Shen Khar Venakhi (Svetitskhoveli Tradition)
16. Michel Polnareff – Sous quelle étoile suis-je né? (excerpt)
17. Ahmad Malek – Omar Gatlato*
18. Snakeskin – Olive groves
19. Nishimura Naoaki – Nocturne #1
20. In-Resonance Collective – Fayha Choir//Zahrat al Madain (excerpt)
21. Pascal Danel – Kilimandjaro (excerpt)
22. Księżyc – Klepana
23. SANAM – Goblin
24. Imed Alibi & Khalil EPI – Hattaya

* = film or tv soundtrack/score



(2025 end-of-year lists) – SNAKESKIN

As the year winds down, we asked every artist whose music Ruptured released in 2025 to share the records that stayed closest to them over the past months.

SNAKESKIN (Julia Sabra & Fadi Tabbal)

Kara-Lis Coverdale – A Series of Actions in a Sphere of Forever / From Where You Came / Changes in Air
Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe – Lateral
Jefre-Cantu Ledesma – Gift Songs
Blood Orange – Essex Honey
caroline – caroline 2
Claire M Singer – Gleann Ciuin
William Tyler – Time Indefinite
Lucrecia Dalt – A Danger to Ourselves
Ichiko Aoba – Luminescent Creatures
Oklou – choke enough


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 – 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 duo’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 Julia’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: Don’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 don’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.” – 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 doesn’t reduce you to tears, then you’re probably hollow inside. The best art often comes from the darkest places; the same ones many of us will never encounter.” – Simon Kirk, Sun-13 https://sun-13.com/2025/10/10/snakeskin-we-live-in-sand/

“There’s a chilling disconnect at the heart of Lebanese duo Snakeskin’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 album’s lyrics, a far bleaker scenario presents itself. Beneath the sweetness of the music, Sabra lays bare the tragedy playing out across the border—and on our screens, in our feeds, in our thoughts and consciences.” – Phil Sherburne via substack https://futurismrestated.substack.com/p/fr-140-spheres-nexuses-horizons

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

“There’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 album’s most powerful moments emerge in subtle but striking sparks of defiance and resilience; and that, in itself, is a form of hope.” – SceneNoise https://scenenoise.com/New-Music/Snakeskin-s-We-Live-in-Sand-Captures-Hope-Amidst-Destruction

“There’s an atmosphere of grief, anger and frustration throughout, but as with so much of the music Sabra and Tabbal make — together or separately — there is hope here too.” – 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.” – 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 Snakeskin’s music with an urgent beauty, made of dream-state laments, elegiac organ drones and the glitch and glitter of electronic pop beats.” – 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 – Morphine Raum
Nov 06 Zutphen, The Netherlands – Modka Beiroet
Nov 08 Utrecht, The Netherlands – Le Guess Who?
Nov 09 Ghent, Belgium – Groot Begijnhof Church
Nov 12 Paris, France – Les Relais Solidaires
Nov 13 Oslo, Norway – Kafe Haerverk
Nov 14 Amsterdam, The Netherlands – 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 Israel’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 Tabbal’s masterful production with Sabra’s vivid imagery and evocative singing, the duo, as Resident Advisor put it, mines “deep emotional depths by tempering dream pop’s sweet-natured reverie with experimental snarl.” 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 “October sun” 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).  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”

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

Ziad Nawfal contributed a 60mn mix to Radio Alhara’s takeover for UK online radio WORLDWIDE FM 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:
“I was convinced that an atom of your love could keep me going”

1. Sandy Chamoun – Soukoun Mouwhesh
2. Charbel Haber & Sary Moussa – An Atom of Your Love
3. FRKTL – Háttatal
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. NÂR – MIMOUNE II
14. Marc Codsi – The Savior



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

Ziad Nawfal’s monthly broadcast for Radio Alhara in Bethlehem, Palestine — playing Lebanese musician & producer Fadi Tabbal’s latest album in full, along with a selection of some of his recent production work.

Track List:

FADI TABBAL — 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 l’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 – this broadcast features a guest mix by 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 Tabbal’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. CEP Lilians Pavilion
  2. KELLY MORAN Butterfly Phase
  3. AMOR MUERE Shhhhh
  4. YARA ASMAR It Is 5-00pm And Nothing Bad Has Happened To Us (Yet)
  5. SARAH DAVACHI Play The Ghost
  6. LUCRECIA DALT Revuelta
  7. KALI MALONE All Life Long (for organ)
  8. JULIA SABRA Three Days
  9. GROUPER Living Room
  10. ANA ROXANNE Camille
  11. MARINA HERLOP Karada
  12. ELLEN ARKBRO Mountain of Air
  13. GIA MARGARET Cicadas
  14. LAUREL HALO Belleville