Ziad Nawfal has been a pillar of Beirut’s music scene for 30 years. His knowledge of the city’s music is unmatched. In this poignant mixtape, Nawfal selects tracks by some of his favorite local musicians, some of whom he has worked closely with or produced during his long career. These compositions are weaved together with field recordings captured by his close friends and collaborators during the 2019 uprising.
At some point in my early teens, while living in Beirut in the midst of the ongoing civil war, I began to feel a morbid anxiety whenever my parents would go out at night to visit with their acquaintances. Sometimes in the daytime as well, but mostly at night. Over time, and as this anxiety became acute to the point where I could not be left at home unattended, my hearing became attuned to the sounds of car engines in the street. I could recognize the specific sound of my parents’ car, and once I heard it, my anxiety would immediately dissipate.
Glitches and Noise
My relationship to my native city of Beirut has always been marked by noises and sounds, their overbearing presence, their intensity, their rare absences. The engine of my parents’ car, the roaring of planes overhead, both fighter and commercial, calls to prayer firing up simultaneously, cars and scooters beeping and honking, tires screeching to a halt, my father’s portable radio in the next room, neighbors chatting throughout the night outside my window, school bells, church bells, air conditioners’ fans, the clanging of generators, the clamoring of fruit and vegetable sellers, and of course that staple of Beirut, those never-ending construction sites. My peace of mind or lack thereof came to be determined over time by my ability to grapple with the constant barrage of sounds, to bear it, to ignore it, to counter it, to forget about it. I applied additional coating to my apartment walls; I made the windows thicker and thicker; I bought ever more sophisticated headphones, earphones, earplugs. I argued with neighbors, I threw water at passersby, I called school offices and university offices. Noise always won. It always will, in a city like Beirut.
I handed in this mix of music for Norient in September 2021, a couple of weeks before leaving Lebanon for good. The ambient sounds of Beirut permeate this mix, they are constantly in the background. You will hear cars, salespeople, protesters, friends, patriots, enemies, metal, more metal. The sound captures are not mine, they were made by friends, some of them musicians (Fadi Tabbal and Jad Atoui), one a filmmaker (Ghassan Salhab). As for Bana Haffar’s field recordings, these were made during one of her trips to Beirut (now living in Asheville, North Carolina, she returned to Lebanon briefly in 2020 to set up the Beirut Synthesizer Center), using a rudimentary microcassette recorder. These different field recordings, city captures and found sounds weave in and out of the mix. I wanted the city to be present, invade the music in the same way its noise and din would invade my everyday activities.
Junctions
The songs that I chose to accompany the noise(s) of the city represent specific junctions of my long and sometimes arduous journey as a music producer and promoter in Beirut: Youmna Saba is one of the first musicians who played and recorded a live set for one of the Ruptured Sessions, a live music radio show I hosted during my long tenure at Radio Lebanon in Beirut. Jawad Nawfal, better known as Munma, is the artist I’ve worked with the longest, with my label Ruptured.
Charbel Haber and Marc Codsi, appearing here as solo musicians, were both involved with rock band Scrambled Eggs, the first rock band I produced in 2006. Sharif Sehnaoui, the man behind both Irtijal Festival and Al Maslakh record label, has over time become one of my closest and most trusted colleagues. Stéphanie Merchak and Two or The Dragon are artists whose music I fell for in the last couple of years – I strove and eventually managed to include them in several live performances and recordings I produced before leaving Lebanon.
Last but not least, «Beirut Drone ’19», from which there is an excerpt here, is the final large- scale music event I was able to put together in Beirut, with foreign partners as well as international and Lebanese musicians. The excerpt I included here is a good representation of the 12 glorious hours of music that took place on that summer day in 2019; guests Nathan Larson and Mika Takehara, from the U.S. and Japan respectively, can be heard improvising with Lebanese musicians Youmna Saba and Charbel Haber.
Detailed Track Listing
Movement #1 [0’00 – 13’50]
1. Charbel Haber, Mika Takehara, Nathan Larson and Youmna Saba: «Excerpt from Beirut Drone ’19»
2. Bana Haffar: «Castles in Beirut» [excerpt]
3. Two or The Dragon: «Dance Grooves for the Weary» [excerpt]
Beirut field recordings throughout by Fadi Tabbal and Ghassan Salhab
Movement #2 [13’50 – 27’05]
4. Charbel Haber: «Songs of Love» [excerpt]
5. Sharif Sehnaoui: «The Industry» [excerpt]
6. Munma: «La solitude des lendemains de guerre»
7. Stéphanie Merchak: «Espaces et ombres» [excerpt]
Beirut field recordings throughout by Jad Atoui and Ghassan Salhab
Movement #3 [27’05 – 38’00]
8. Marc Codsi: «Back to the Silence»
9. Youmna Saba: «Nafas» [Ruptured Sessions, excerpt]
Ziad Nawfal’s voice recorded at Radio Lebanon by Manolis Manousakis
Beirut field recordings throughout by Ghassan Salhab and Fadi Tabbal
