Press Review // Chamoun, Sahyoun, Atoui // Ghadr

February 14, 2025May 5, 2025Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

Acclaim for Sandy Chamoun, Anthony Sahyoun and Jad Atoui’s Ghadr, released by Ruptured in November 2024:

“On this record, scene stalwarts Anthony Sahyoun and Sandy Chamoun (SANAM) join forces with electroacoustic artist Jad Atoui in a reckoning with tradition that’s fueled by stuttering sub bass, searing guitar textures, and layers of melancholy vocals. Chamoun’s ghostly rendition of “Tahal Layl”—a Bedouin folk song—floats atop drones that expand into a blistering modular onslaught; “Al Moulatham,” on the other hand, interpolates reflections by Yousef al-Domouky on the genocide in Gaza over glitchy, Tim Hecker-esque ambient swells. Ghadr exhorts us to listen to both violence and repair, mobilizing tradition to face an uncertain future.” – James Gui, Ley Lines column, Bandcamp
https://daily.bandcamp.com/ley-lines/ley-lines-november-2024

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Press Review // Julia Sabra // Natural History Museum

January 1, 2025May 5, 2025Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

Acclaim for Julia Sabra’s Natural History Museum, released by Ruptured in November 2024:

“I loved Julia Sabra’s Natural History Museum—it was released at the end of the year and is quietly devastating. Her lyricism and sensitivity in timbre and harmony is akin for me to the great Linda Perhacs. The songs are intimate and infinite feeling at the same time—I love the raw and soft poetic settings of love and death. [Her] ruminations on the horrors of the war on Gaza, from the perspective of a Lebanese musician based in Beirut, are haunting. In particular, the ghostly organ and synth on the last track on the record, “Minor Detail”, evoke to me the frightening solemnity of death, and a feeling that the ground from underneath has been lifted and displaced.” – Julia Holter, The Fader Artist Picks 2024
https://www.thefader.com/2024/12/20/best-album-songs-2024-artist-picks

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Press Review // Yara Asmar // Stuttering Music

December 15, 2024May 5, 2025Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

Acclaim for Yara Asmar’s Stuttering Music, released by Ruptured in November 2024:

“Stuttering Music is one of unfolding doubles, of sounds two times incomplete, of daydreaming dissociation without an anchoring center. It is the wonder of memory, the humorous poetry of being both somewhere and elsewhere, the context collapse of broken sequences – musical, historical, vital. Is a remembrance a duplicitous invention? As Asmar extends the sounds of the accordion like wings, she draws our attention to the falling feathers, each a unity, and yet also a fragment. The levity of their form betrays profound connections with everything around them, a swirl of the kaleidoscope, every singular strand of self inherently an other. It is sad, and yet also funny, how memory fools us into thinking like one. Which is why a Stuttering Music is also always beautiful, first as presence, then as absence.” – David M. Flores, A Closer Listen Top 10 Drone Albums of 2024
https://acloserlisten.com/2024/12/14/acl-2024-top-ten-drone/

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Press Review // Shatr Collective // Poppies in October

October 9, 2024November 18, 2024Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

Acclaim for Shatr Collective’s album Poppies in October, released by Ruptured in August 2024 (digital):

“What does poetry tell us in the time of catastrophe? Intertwining words and music with the sounds of colonial violence in Palestine and Lebanon, Poppies in October is the first recorded project from Lebanon’s Shatr collective, one that musically modulates “truth to power” while grounding experimental musical production with sound clips and media sources that sonically encapsulate our times.” – Christina Hazboun, Bandcamp, September 2024
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/i-found-it-on-bandcamp-friday-september-2024

“A challenging, moving album of poetry and modular synthesis from SHATR Collective. These pieces are visceral responses to the genocide in Gaza, indeed referencing the killing of Palestinian poets – Sahyoun’s “Salim” is about Salim Al Naffar. The emotion in the spoken words is palpable, and along with the stark electronics it can be difficult listening – as it probably should be.” – Peter Hollo, Utility Fog broadcast (FBi Radio), August 2024
https://utilityfog.radio/archives/2024/08/

“Beirut-based poetry group Shatr Collective, taking their name from the Arabic term for a hemistich or half-line in a verse, meditates on the power and limitations of literature as witness on Poppies in October. With English and Arabic poetry by Theresa Sahyoun and Nadine Makarem set to otherworldly, desolate synths by Sarah Huneidi, Poppies in October is a raw reflection on the unlikely thriving of human spirit and resistance in the midst of violent erasure. “No settler was ever able to kill a poem/ Which is where Refaat now lives,” recites Sahyoun on her paean to the eponymous Palestinian poet and academic Refaat Alareer, targeted and killed in an Israeli airstrike in December. Concluding with the hope inspired by Alareer’s life and legacy, Huneidi’s synths turn warm, even optimistic.” – James Gui, Ley Lines column, Bandcamp, September 2024
https://daily.bandcamp.com/ley-lines/ley-lines-august-2024

Featured in The Attic’s Staff Picks of August 2024:
https://theatticmag.com/news/2466/staff-picks-_-august-2024.html

“Go support these Lebanese releases on Bandcamp”, by Peter Kirn (CDM), September 2024:
https://cdm.link/lebanese-releases-on-bandcamp/

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Press Review // Moose Terrific [Tamara Filyavich, Sam Shalabi] // Nude Beginnings

October 9, 2024November 18, 2024Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

Acclaim for Moose Terrific’s album Nude Beginnings, released by Ruptured in July 2024 (cassette/digital):

“Low-key electronic vignettes, emphasising fun and hopefulness over rage and sorrow.” – Peter Hollo, Utility Fog broadcast (FBi Radio), July 2024
https://utilityfog.radio/archives/2024/07/

“The opening title track has cascading melodies which constantly evade predictability. ‘Fort Da’ sounds like it could soundtrack a Sega game from the 1990s. ‘Jefferson Airport’ reminds me of Shalabi’s Eid album, but transposed from oud to electronics. It’s a mood which runs into closer ‘Bloomsday’, a droning synth and shuffling beat leading to a space somewhere between Trans-Europe Express-era Kraftwerk and Sanam. It’s music which revels in crossovers and new connections.” – Daryl Worthington, The Quietus, September 2024
https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/cassettes/spools-out-cassette-reviews-for-september-by-daryl-worthington/

Featured in The Attic’s Staff Picks of July 2024:
https://theatticmag.com/news/2464/staff-picks-_-july-2024.html

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Press Review // Marmalsana [Burkhard Beins, Tony Elieh, Maurice Louca] // Marmalsana

October 9, 2024November 18, 2024Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

Acclaim for Marmalsana’s album Marmalsana, released by Ruptured in July 2024 (cassette/digital):

“A singularly idiomatic music worth attending to.” – Peter Hollo, Utility Fog broadcast (FBi Radio), July 2024
https://utilityfog.radio/archives/2024/07/

“The tracks are plucked, rattled and thrummed exercises in nuanced rhythmic and textural exploration. The juxtapositions and tensions between melodic and non-idiomatic are entrancing, peaking on ‘Alveno’, when Louca plays out a jaunty, almost folky melody on the quarter tone guitar which the other two make a throbbing, creaking soundscape around. The whole album arcs like a storm rising and falling, with all the shifting pressure and unpredictable eddies of movement and sound that suggests.” – Daryl Worthington, The Quietus, September 2024
https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/cassettes/spools-out-cassette-reviews-for-september-by-daryl-worthington/

“It’s a wonderful album that suggests how those reduced materials can be shepherded into something truly dynamic and exciting, all of it fueled by an obvious rapport and shared vision. Maurice Louca and Tony Elieh work together in multiple projects, including the great Arabic rock band Karkana, while Burkhard Beins and Elieh also have a duo called Zone Null, so the overlapping interests are nothing new. Still, intersecting ideas don’t ever guarantee something this cohesive and absorbing.” – Peter Margasak, Nowhere Street substack, September 2024
https://petermargasak.substack.com/p/on-the-road-again

Featured in The Attic’s Staff Picks of July 2024:
https://theatticmag.com/news/2464/staff-picks-_-july-2024.html

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Press Review // Youmna Saba // Wishah

December 23, 2023October 8, 2024Press ArchiveLeave a Comment

Acclaim for Youmna Saba’s album Wishah, released by Touch UK In October 2023 (CD/digital) and by Ruptured in December 2023 (vinyl/digital).

“Structured into five discernible stages, Wishah guides us through a gradual process of revelation, deconstructing memories and barriers that have built up through the ages. Saba carefully peels back those layers, finding an empty shell at the center, the place where home once existed. Each word stings. Caustic, atmospheric drones hollow out the last remnants, leaving our thoughts trailing into the endless night. A stunning album.” – Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis
https://foxydigitalis.zone/2023/12/13/the-capsule-garden-vol-2-42-december-13-2023/

“Nestled in the interval between the urgency of speaking, and that of remaining silent or speaking out of turn, Youmna Saba engages in a relentless yet passionate and loving heart-to-heart with her instrument.” – Nasri N. Sayegh, L’Orient-le-Jour
https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1350564/youmna-saba-electronise-son-oud.html

“The five-song composition feels like going in circles on the edge of an epiphany; a spiral in synthesized oud.” – Layla Raik, SceneNoise
https://scenenoise.com/New-Music/Youmna-Saba-s-Wishah-is-an-Obscure-Tapestry-of-Oud-Soundscapes

Also included in Scene Noise’s Best Albums of 2023 (Middle East & North Africa):
https://scenenoise.com/Reviews/Best-Albums-Of-2023-Middle-East-North-Africa

“Lebanese musician, composer and musicologist Youmna Saba positions her voice at the center of her latest solo album (…) Very strong material indeed.” – Boomkat
https://boomkat.com/products/wishah

“A remarkable new work from Beirut’s Youmna Saba, now based in Paris. Saba is an accomplished oud player (…) On Wishah وِشاح her oud’s sound is technologically extended, to amplify every string squeak and body tap, and further integrated with sympathetic electronics. The works range from abstract processed sound to delicate oud fingerpicking, and most tracks patiently reach a place where Saba brings in her emotive vocals. It’s an immersive, moving listening experience.” – Peter Hollo, Utility Fog (FBi Radio)
https://www.frogworth.com/utilityfog/archives/2023/10/08/playlist-08-10-23/

“Saba s’attaque au logiciel historique du oud en tant qu’instrument : (elle) utilise ce qui est souvent perçu comme une série de défauts pour le transformer en instrument électro-acoustique, en jouant notamment sur des dispositifs de larsen maîtrisé, comme lorsqu’elle a placé le oud face à 6 voix et travaillé sur leurs résonances dans l’instrument. À le faire sonner ainsi, elle s’affranchit de la vision essentialiste s’étant largement diffusée ces cinquante dernières années en Europe ; un oud justement dénué de bruits, suspendu dans une logique de pureté proche de la musique baroque, où chaque note résonne et doit rencontrer le silence du public.” – Musique Journal
https://musique-journal.fr/2023/10/19/youmna-saba-a-plus-dune-corde-a-son-oud/