Syrphe – Ruptured Music

Ruptured Album Release // SAFA // Hometown [Original Score]

October 1, 2023November 2, 2023NewsLeave a Comment

Releasing 06 October 2023 on Ruptured:

Mhamad Safa is a musician, architect and researcher, based between London and Beirut. Safa’s work focuses on multi-scalar spatial conditions and their sonic make-ups. He conveys these auditory inquiries by assembling sound design, micro-sampling, algorithmic sound technology, synthesis, psychoacoustics, field recordings, and their graphic interpretations. His debut album The Subtleties of Elevated Things was released in 2018 by Amsterdam-based label Modular Mind, and second album Ibtihalat was released in 2022 by UIQ in the UK. Besides composing music for films and sound installations, he was part of multiple publications and music compilations. Safa had shown individual and collaborative artwork and performances at Goethe Institute in Beirut, Arab Center for Architecture, Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, the Institute for Contemporary Art in London, the Centre for Research Architecture in London, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Bergen Assembly in Norway, The Showroom in London, Café Oto in London among others.

The music on Hometown was produced for the video installation of the same title by Dutch collective Metahaven, shot between Beirut and Kyiv in 2017. The film conjures notions of land, technology, and fiction through an endlessly morphing reality of living conditions. Seen through the lens of two protagonists, Hometown depicts their uncertain and distorted relationship to geographic affinities, and the intimate memories embedded within the landscape.
The original score emerged out of a continuous exchange of images, scripts, and poetry between Safa and Metahaven, evolving into an overall sonic narrative. The composition highlights the protagonists’ struggle to access memory while situating it within their spatial and networked conditions. Evolving from processed soundscapes, stretched micro-samples and feedbacks, this assemblage weaves together a sense of forgetting with tacit spatial knowledge. Percussive and rhythmic structures drew from patterns inherent to computational systems and technologies of visibility, omnipresent in the film.

Music composed and produced by Mhamad Safa in Beirut in 2017-2018.
Mixed by Mhamad Safa, except for tracks 5 and 8 mixed by Jad Atoui.
Mastered by Cedrik Fermont at Syrphe, Berlin.

Available as a digital album and limited cassette with download code.

Listen/Order on Bandcamp

Ziad Nawfal Guest Mix for Radio Ma3azef // 09 September 2020

September 16, 2020May 14, 2022Music ShowsLeave a Comment

Ziad Nawfal’s monthly mix for Radio Ma3azef in Tunis – featuring music from Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, the USA and Germany:

1. Monolake – Beirut [DE]
2. MAKH – Abstract [LB]
3. Elyse Tabet & Jawad Nawfal – Coast I [LB]
4. Mash – Echoing [TN]
5. Basel Naouri – Epic Wars [JO]
6. Deena Abdelwahed – Insaniyti [TN]
7. Thoom – Large Fly [LB]
8. Kid Fourteen – One Day I’m Gone [LB]
9. DJ Haram – Overeager [US]
10. Johnny Kafta Anti-Vegetarian Orchestra – Bedo’s Lullaby [LB]
11. Daou – Lust [LB]
12. Aya Metwalli – Lugere [EG]
13. El Rass & Munma – Rissala (Ruptured session) [LB]
14. Bu Nasser Touffar – Nay (prod. Munma) [LB]

Ruptured News // MUSIC RELIEF FOR BEIRUT #1: Berlin

August 14, 2020September 5, 2020News1 Comment

In the aftermath of the August 4th explosion in Beirut, which left several hundred people dead, thousands injured, and resulted in city-wide material damage, several labels and platforms have started releasing compilations in support of the crisis.

Berlin-based label Syrphe Records, a platform for experimental and noise music from Asia and Africa, put out four compilations entitled Retrieving Beirut, with music by 94 acts from 40 countries. Featured genres include ambient, drone, techno, prog rock and industrial. Proceeds will be offered to one or more Lebanese charities.

Read Scene Noise‘s review of Retrieving Beirut here.
Buy Retrieving Beirut here.

Lebanese musician Rabih Beaini released The Sacred Rage on his label Morphine Records. The 12-track compilation features new tracks by the likes of German musicians Monolake and Rashad Becker, Lebanese musicians ‘A’ Trio, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, and Beaini himself. All proceeds will go to organisations working on the ground in Beirut.

Read CDM’s review of The Sacred Rage here.
Buy The Sacred Rage here.

Solidarity With Beirut from the Berlin-based label Habibi Funk features seven cuts by artists from Beirut, including Roger Fakhr, revered band Ferkat Al Ard and Munir Khauli, whose track, “Heik Ha Nishtghil?,” was recorded in the mid-’80s. All proceeds from the compilation will go to the Lebanese Red Cross.

Read Scene Noise‘s review of Solidarity With Beirut here.
Buy Solidarity With Beirut here.

KIRDEC // Ruptured Session // 10 January 2011

January 17, 2011June 12, 2024Live On AirLeave a Comment

Belgian xxperimental musician & producer CEDRIK FERMONT aka KIRDEC was the first guest of RUPTURES in 2011, for a live performance and extensive interview, detailing the processes of his approach in various fields of electronic music.

Listen:
Cdrik Ruptures part 1
+
Cdrik Ruptures part 2

Track listing:
Tetraplok
Axiome (C-drik & Olivier Moreau)
C-drik
Ammo
Kirdec