Radio Papesse

We are pleased to present Alternative Lebanese Music Session, a trilogy collection curated by Ziad Nawfal and featuring both Lebanese - some of the most interesting and talented bands in Beirut - and Lebanese-born musicians working outside of Lebanon. This is an attempt to keep our ears open to diverse music scenes and countries, to provide new readings of Western music, and to know more about music ramifications in Beirut; what's going on there? How does Beirut sound?

??We asked Ziad Nawfal to accompany us on this journey; Ziad is a music producer and promoter, who used to work in La CD-Thèque, Beirut’s unnmissable alternative record store, as well as its attending label, Incognito Productions. In 2008, he started the Ruptured Sessions, a series of live recordings on his Ruptures radio program, broadcasting from Radio Lebanon 96.2FM. Ziad recently published a book documenting Beirut’s alternative music scene, Untitled Tracks: On Alternative Music in Beirut.

Ziad Nawfal responded to our invitation and produced three shows:

• Monday 27.06, 6.00 pm Alternative Rock and Pop from Beirut
• Wednesday 29.06, 7.00 pm Hip Hop and Modern Folk from Beirut
• Friday 01.07, 10.00 pm Electro and Experimental music from Beirut

You can now listen to the first show, devoted to the alternative rock and pop from Beirut. The show conceives:

_ Soapkills - Enta fen (2006). Formed by Yasmine Hamdan and Zeid Hamdan in the late 90’s, Soapkills is one of the most significant modern bands in Lebanon, even though both musicians are engaged in solo projects nowadays.
_ Zeid the Wings - Hikini (2010). Zeid Hamdan's solo project.
_ White Trees - The game of love (2008)
_ Intensive Care, Another you (2009), a band formed by Carl Gerges, the drummer from Mashrou’ Leila, and singer/guitarist Paul Tyan
_ The Incompetents - Closing time (2010), a collaboration between songwriter Serge Yared and producer/multi-instrumentalist/sound engineer Fadi 'Fe' Tabbal
_ Ziad Saad - Venus in pleurs (2008), a singer/songwriter from Beirut, who is also a talented actor and video artist
_ Heroes & Villains, The last of the useful inventions (2008), another band from Montreal, founded by Lebanese-born singer/guitarist Charif Megarbane
_ Mashrou' Leila - Imbibillilah. The band was formed in 2008 at the American University of Beirut, when violinist Haig Papazian, guitarist Andre Chedid and pianist Omaya Malaeb posted an open invitation to musicians. Seven people were selected and created Mashrou' Leila
_ Lazzy Lung - Rains in October (2010). Lazzy Lung’s lead singer and guitarist, Allan Chaaraoui, spent the last few years travelling between Lebanon and Canada, and the band’s music combines musical influences culled from his travels.
_ NEW GOVERNMENT, Flaka (2007), a collaboration between Zeid Hamdan (former Soapkills) and French brothers Jeremie (vocals, drums and keyboards) and Timothee Regnier (guitars)
_ Scrambled Eggs - Bleeding nun (2006), one of Beirut’s most prolific and original indie rock bands
_ LUMI - Face it out (2008), Face it out (2008). An electro-rock duo formed by Marc Codsi (guitars and machines, formerly with Scrambled Eggs) and Mayaline Hage (vocals).