The pandemic-driven changes have produced new sensory dissonances: While some urban spaces became eerily quiet, ubiquitous video calls turn the domestic into a public space flooded by multiple voices and sounds. What do these sonic worlds tell us about the social? 

Norient met with Firas Abou Fakher of the indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila who is among the progressive voices of the young Lebanese generation, to talk about Lebanon’s complicated history, clichés about the Arab world, and the role of music in times of change.

Can music production portray nuanced, complex subjectivities relating to reminiscence and retrospection? In an examination of his track «22 – 122», Guy Baron shows how a musical interpretation of an «afterglow» can be made with audio processing and sampling techniques.

2,816’000 people are suffering from a mental disorder in Ghana. In her essay, Ghanaian journalist Akosua Hanson reflects on how the perspective of wholesomeness in African philosophies could tackle this problem.

The Norient Special «DisOrient» presents contemporary music videos from the Middle East as well as Central and South Asia, that challenge Orientalist stereotypes. Project curators Dara Shikoh Channa and Theresa Beyer know this is a sensitive topic.

When Saad Lamjarred’s hit song «Lm3allem» topped the charts, little attention was given to the self-Orientalist imageries that were propagated by this song. If anything, this music video is another invitation to further endorse the global trend of Orientalist consumerism.