Liliane Chlela
Liliane Chlela a.k.a Queen Lil is best known for co-founding hezbel taleta, a collective project united every tuesday for an improvised session, with collaboration with several local and international artists such as Vladimir Kurumilian, Viken Bajac, Gerard Rechdan and Julien Younes.
Taken from her own biography, she’s a Musician / Composer / DJ perceiving music from an avant-garde approach; Liliane’s singularity is eminent through her unusual sound treatment, complemented with distinct experimental hardware techniques and composition tools used in her live improvised performances and productions. Her latest news: The DnB project is a live and improvised Drum’n bass trio including Fouad Afra on drums and Bashar Farran on bass; this newly born concept triad consists of a rare combination of electro-acoustic drum’n bass improvisation. Her music is an experiment of sounds, speeches, beats and melodies produced through a rare amalgam of instruments, hardware and gears.
To find out more about Liliane Chlela, visit her website www.lilianechlela.com and listen to her tracks on Soundcloud. You can also follow on twitter, Facebook or Myspace.
Picture courtesy of Lara Samaha
Engram
Engram is a duo of artistic photographer formed in Lebanon in 2003 by Joanna Andraos and Caroline Tabet. This platform has the vocation to work to achieve both photographic series that installations involving photo media (film and digital) and video. The work around the process of memory and loss is persistent in their projects that are constructed from real or fictional image and translate into a concept or narrative sequence near the film. Seconded by The Altered Ear, this approach is sometimes complemented by the audio component to form an experience of audio-singular vision. Caroline Tabet is often seen performing as VJ for Munma and Index/Left.
Visit their website at www.engrambeirut.com
Pictures taken from the 290 RUE DU LIBAN exhibition
Irtijal Festival
For the past 10 years, Irtijal, the International Festival of Experimental Music in Lebanon (Irtijal literally means improvisation in Arabic) takes place every April, creating a platform for alternative and experimental artist to jam and conceive some musical performance fit to be seen at the NYMIF.
With some of the most prominent performers in free and experimental music from Europe and Lebanon around gathered, the list is incomparable and growing year after year. Canadian/Lebanese group Jerusalem In My Heart, Japanese DJ Sniff, French duo EVOLUTION, Franz Hautzinger, Paul Wenninger, Sabina Meyer, Axel Dörner, Uriel Barthélémi, Sharif Sehnaoui, Tarek Atoui, Mazen Kerbaj, Raed Yassin, the Scrambled Eggs and Court-Circuit are among some of the names around the years.
For more information about the festival visit Irtijal.org, or check out the soon to be announced 2011 edition
Image: Carte Blanche live performance at the Irtijal Festival 2010. Picture courtesy of Tanya Traboulsi
Index/Left
Lebanon based duo Index/Left was formed during the summer 2009 by sound designer Jawad Nawfal (a.k.a. Munma) and musician/Dj Ziad Moukarzel. This formation focuses on live and dancefloor dubstep sets, digging its musical influences into various electronic music styles: electronica, techno, glitch hop, garage, and hardcore.
Check out their myspace page at www.myspace.com/indexleft or their track on www.soundcloud.com/indexleft
Image: Index/Left at the Basement. Picture courtesy of Tanya Trabousli
The Ruptured Sessions
Ziad Nawfal, the mastermind behind the “Ruptured Session“ started mixing music in Beirut’s government radio station, Radio Liban, in the early 1990′s. Early on, his eclectic music programming took in such different genres as indie rock, alternative pop, 60’s and 70’s psychedelia, dance music and electronica, with little care for political correctness or ‘proper’ merging of styles. Nawfal’s thirst for sharing musical oddities and discoveries saw him branch out from the confines of radio waves, and he started deejaying in the late 1990’s in local Beiruti bars, restaurants and clubs, as well as private parties and large-scale musical events.
In addition to his regular duties as DJ and radio host, Nawfal worked for a number of years in Beirut’s top-notch alternative record store, La CD-Thèque, and its sister label Incognito. Nawfal’s post as music buyer allowed him to introduce the Lebanese public to a constellation of underground, revered leftfield artists, and to come in contact with various musicians from Beirut’s alternative music scene.
In 2006, Nawfal started flirting with music production and management, producing albums for Lebanese rock trio Scrambled Eggs and electronica outfit, Munma, as well as concerts for both bands, locally and abroad. Between 2007 and 2010, Nawfal produced three more albums for Munma.
In 2008, Nawfal started hosting live shows on Radio Liban, which featured interviews and live performances by local Lebanese bands and performers, encompassing such various genres as folk, rock, electronic, noise, and freeform experimentation. These “Ruptured” sessions were subsequently edited and compiled onto CD form; the first volume was released in April 2009, with an emphasis on folk and psychedelic rock, and the second, more experimental volume will see the day in August 2010.
In 2009, Nawfal launched a series of live events in various venues in Beirut, including famed Lebanese club The Basement and art-house cinema Metropolis; first among these events were two cine-concerts by Lebanese experimental band XEFM, set to Russian art-house film ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ and early German animation feature ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’. These were followed by successful concerts by several Lebanese groups, including funk/hip hop collective Fareeq el Atrash, dubstep duo Index/Left, and rock bands Scrambled Eggs and The Incompetents.
In March 2010, in collaboration with photographer Tanya Traboulsi and editor Ghalya Saadawi, Nawfal published a book documenting Beirut’s alternative music scene, entitled ‘Untitled Tracks: On Alternative Music in Beirut’ (Amers Editions). In April of the same year, he also contributed to the organization of the 10th edition of the Irtijal Festival, Lebanon’s renowned, annual improvisation celebration.
Text taken from Ruptured Online
Image: Marc “One Man Nation” Chia at the Ruptured Session and its host Ziad Nawfal. Image courtesy of Tanya Traboulsi