BEIRUT BIRDS :: Album Release

In the organizer's words:

BEIRUT BIRDS
ALBUM RELEASE 25.10.2024 19:30 [doors] 20:00 [start]
WITH Nour Sokhon
FREE ENTRY Donations welcome
ACCESS Our space is accessible by wheelchair

Join us for the release of Beirut Birds, the debut solo album by artist and composer Nour Sokhon, which explores the stories of emigration and upheaval that have shaped Lebanon in recent years.

The album serves as a sonic memory capsule, weaving together live improvisations, field recordings, and objects to reflect the emotional and physical journeys of many Lebanese who left following the October 17 revolution. It builds on Sokhon's 2022 Beirut Berlin Birds performance, transforming it into a richly layered audiovisual soundscape.

Field recordings and objects, collected between 2018-2021 in Lebanon and Berlin, form the album's backbone. In dialogue with interviewees, Sokhon chants near-mantras while embedding sounds from objects that symbolize migration - such as office bells, luggage wheels, and bureaucratic paperwork. These elements are combined with her improvisations on classical piano, electronics, violin, and percussion, creating an evolving space that reflects the in-between state of those who have left and those who have stayed.

Beirut Birds captures the sonic ambiances of both Beirut and Berlin, intertwining fragments of Beirut city sounds, birdsong, and the bureaucratic noise of immigration processes. Through these layers, the album delves into the complex emotions of displacement and transformation. With this release, Sokhon archives memories of a Beirut that no longer exists while embodying the experience of emigration. The album is a tribute to the nostalgia, perseverance, and uncertainty of those who left in search of a new beginning.

Nour Sokhon is a Lebanese artist based in Berlin, Germany. Her creative practice is centered around exploring different methods of working with artistic research including interview material, field recordings, and recorded material from an organized site-specific intervention. The research is then translated into sound/music compositions, performances, interactive installations, and moving image work.

In 2019, Nour received the Emerging Artist Prize at the Sursock Museum in Lebanon, for a moving image piece entitled 'Revisiting: Hold Your Breath'. She has exhibited her artwork internationally and has performed in various sound/music festivals such as the Network Music Festival 2020, This Is Not Lebanon 2021, Punkt Festival 2023, Gaudeamus Festival 2023, United in Grief 2024, Vorspiel 2024, and Biennale d'Aix 2024.

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Price information:

Free Entry Donations welcome