Bandcamp Friday pick. Beirut’s stellar label System Revival earlier this year put together a must-hear compilation of music with a who-who of Lebanese and international artists. And if you slept on it before, now’s the chance – made more poignant by the anniversary this week of the Beirut blast.
Michael Feghali of System Revival, Rami Abi Rafi, and Alexis Mouawad co-curated this compilation. It includes a track by the multi-talented Rami Abi Rafi alongside CDM favorites from Beirut like Elyse Tabet and Bana Haffar (of the Beirut Synth Center), improvisational beacons Jad Atoui and Anthony Sahyoun and Fadi Tabbal, and KMRU and Ireen Amnes (the latter seen here very recently) and just a whole lot more.
100% of the proceeds benefit reconstructing Beirut – a city that has refused to succumb to war and negligence and still is a place unlike any other. So today 100% of that 100% goes to that project:
Beirut Heritage Initiative are a team of architects who came together in light of the Beirut port explosion in August 2020 with the primary goal of assessing historical / old buildings that were damaged, renovating and rebuilding where possible – to ultimately preserve the heritage of the city of Beirut
The theme is woven directly into the sounds of the music themselves:
We have gained access to the construction sites on about 10 occasions and put together a sample pack filled with over 200 recordings from various sounds in and around the sites (during different moments of the project and processes)
Our plan was to provide guest artists/producers with this sample pack and request a track (any genre) using these recordings/sounds.
It’s appropriate, this use of samples; it’s a city that can be loud but also one frequently full of song. Music is in the soul of the cities we life in, even when they sometimes seem impossible.
Listen to this one:
And while I don’t have time to write them up properly, it’s also worth noting System Revival has been busy with Berlin collaborations as the ties between our cities get deeper. I’ll let these speak for ourselves, JakoJako to Monolake to Barker to a certain mysterious horseman (and Erika while she’s associated with Detroit is a recent Berlin move, too):
The label has also done previous compilations taking a stand for Beirut – think For Beirut, The End of Corruption and Beirut Will Rise Again.