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 duoโs 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 Juliaโs 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: Donโt 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
“With dark minimalism orchestrated from the bottom of the vortex, if We live in sand doesnโt reduce you to tears, then youโre 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-13https://sun-13.com/2025/10/10/snakeskin-we-live-in-sand/
“Thereโs a chilling disconnect at the heart of Lebanese duo Snakeskinโs 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 albumโs lyrics, a far bleaker scenario presents itself. Beneath the sweetness of the music, Sabra lays bare the tragedy playing out across the borderโand 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
“Thereโs 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 albumโs most powerful moments emerge in subtle but striking sparks of defiance and resilience; and that, in itself, is a form of hope.” โ SceneNoisehttps://scenenoise.com/New-Music/Snakeskin-s-We-Live-in-Sand-Captures-Hope-Amidst-Destruction
“Thereโs 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 Newshttps://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
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 Israelโs 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 Tabbalโs masterful production with Sabraโs vivid imagery and evocative singing, the duo, as Resident Advisor put it, mines โdeep emotional depths by tempering dream popโs 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 โOctober 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.
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 Armsย
THEY KEPT OUR PHOTOGRAPHS: Listen/Order (Ruptured)ย
Ziad Nawfalโs monthly broadcast forย Radio Alhara in Bethlehem, Palestine โ playing Lebanese musician & producer Fadi Tabbalโs 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 lโaube
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)
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 Tabbalโs 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.
CEPย Lilians Pavilion
KELLY MORANย Butterfly Phase
AMOR MUEREย Shhhhh
YARA ASMARย It Is 5-00pm And Nothing Bad Has Happened To Us (Yet)
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 Lebanesemusician 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 โMarjaa: 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.
DAKN & MUQATAโAย Fi Miโad
SNAKESKIN All The Birds
MITSKIย Heaven
YOUMNA SABAย Ahad
FARAH KADDOURย Estehlฤl
VAMPI & NADAH EL-SHAZLYย Myst
RAHILLย Tell Me
DRAGONCHILDย Unicode 1200
MARC CODSIย The Dance
DEENA ABDELWAHEDย Each Day
JENNY HVALย Year Of Love
SARY MOUSSA & CHARBEL HABERย An Atom Of Your Love
NABIHAH IQBALย Dreamer
SANAMย Shajar Al-Touti
CLAIRE DEAKย Quarrel Of The Senses
MAYSSA JALLADย Haigazian (October 22)
Portrait of Mayssa taken in Beirut by Mohamad Al-Rifai
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: โIn 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
รLIANE RADIGUE – Adnos I
PHILL NIBLOCK – Didjeridoos and Donโts
PAULINE OLIVEROS – Time Perspectives
BANA HAFFAR – Ahl Al Samaa’
RAED YASSIN – Black Risotto With Razor Clams
TWO OR THE DRAGON – Dance Grooves For The Weary -Part I-
FRANZ HAUTZINGER & MAZEN KERBAJ – Kalash 1
RASHAD BECKER – matraquage
RELรCHE ENSEMBLE – Paul Epstein, “Three Songs from Home
NADAH EL SHAZLY – Breakup By The Sea
MARGARET LENG TAN – Dream
โAโ TRIO – Kazdoura
JANA WINDEREN – Live in Den Haag
LAURIE SPIEGEL – Music for Dance II
YOUMNA SABA – Al khayal ุงูุฎูุงู
SNAKESKIN (JULIA SABRA & FADI TABBAL) – Past Tense