Youmna Saba & Fadi Tabbal at Onohub

– Alexis Paul
– Fadi Tabbal
– Youmna Saba

About Alexis
Alexis Paul a.k.a. Saudaá Group is involved in a one-year-long tour with a barrel organ to experiment with locals, update a 3-centuries-old instrument and questions the non-musical side of music. He is currently in residence at the Mansion (Beirut), with his mechanical musical wind instrument. In collaboration with Lebanese musicians, he will play an half-improvised hypnotic sound piece mixing mechanical and electronic music, folk instruments and field recordings.

Interested in connections between Art and Life, in music as a tool to improve love and sensibility, as a musician, in the frames of this project, he chose to work with an instrument manufactured for non musicians. To avoid the technical approach, transfer the ego towards the machine and produce a form of magic. By using an instrument which is disappearing itself, he tries to focus on the disappearances resistance and to include each time a social or poetic theme linked to the country. In Lebanon, after reading an article on Mashallaw News website, he plans to visit the Memories Museum of Palestinian culture, located in Chatila, and to record random obejcts to produce a noise and diy spontaneous symphony. The final work will be ready at the ending performance at Mansion.

Alexis Paul a.k.a Saudaá Group is a parisian musician and cultural actor born in Les Sables D’Olonne, Western France. He spent 15 past years to play in different bands (from hardcore to quiet acoustic music). Inspired by Robert Filliou, Cesar Manriqe, Eward Saïd or Jacques Prévert, he is mostly interested in Poetry. He is a member of Belle Arché Lou and Dianthus, has collaborated with Mourad Belouadi, Alma Forrer, Hraïr Hratchian, Vardan Harutyunyan, Fujita Yosuke, Benoît Pioulard and many others. He found Humanist music and Armures Provisoires Labels.

About Youmna
Youmna is a Lebanese singer/songwriter who started writing songs quite accidentally, after accepting to perform originals at the opening of an art exhibition in Beirut. In December 2008, Youmna released her first EP entitled “Min Aafesh el Beit” (Arabic for “household furniture”), a collaboration with musician and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal, from Tunefork Recording Studios. 2011 saw the release of her second EP, “Hal Bent Aabalha Tghanni” (“this girls feels like singing”), a 5-song CD that began in Youmna’s room as a series of experiments in home recording. Youmna collaborated with many musicians, namely: Korean Gayageum player Kyungso Park, Polish composer Piotr Kurek, and British songwriter/guitarist Mike Cooper, and took part in musical programs and residencies, such as “OneBeat” organized by Bang on a Can. During her residency at Gyeonggi Creation Center, South Korea, in fall 2013, Youmna composed and wrote her latest album “Njoum”, an experiment in storytelling and songwriting, rendered in vocals, oud, and processed guitars. “Njoum” was officially released in September 2014, and is being presented in a series of concerts, in collaboration with Fadi Tabbal. Alongside music making, Youmna earned a Master’s degree in musicology, focusing mainly on the parallels between classical Arabic music and Arabic visual art, and will soon begin her PhD. She is a part-time instructor at the musicology department at the Antonine University and at Onomatopoeia, the Music Hub.

About Fadi
Fadi is a Lebanese musician, producer and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal’s work consists of guitar pieces ranging from stripped acoustics to ambient and shoegazing-inspired treatments. Often referred to as “the hardest-working man in Lebanon’s alternative music scene,” Tabbal relocated to Beirut in 2006, following studies in sound engineering in Montreal, Canada; he promptly established Tunefork Recording Studios, a specialized work-space which offers customized services including full band recordings, live sound, music production and composition. Tabbal is a full-time member of several Lebanese bands, including psychedelic rock band The Incompetents, experimental rock quartet XEFM, indie rock outfits Ramly and Interbellum, drone unit Under the Carpet and punk band Scrambled Eggs. His newest project The Bunny Tylers (with Charbel Haber) veers between drone, electronics, post-rock and noise rock. He also collaborates frequently with singer/songwriter Youmna Saba. Fadi Tabbal has also produced some of the most renowned musicians in Lebanon’s contemporary alternative music scene, including bands such as Charlie Rayne, Gurumiran, Postcards, Safar, The Wanton Bishops and Who Killed Bruce Lee, to name but a few. In addition to managing and handling all engineering tasks at Tunefork Studios, Tabbal is a specialist in sound design and sound conception. He has worked on a variety of projects, including sound and music installations for Lebanese art ensemble The Feel Collective and Nada Kano’s Beirut-based dance company, and sound design/music for films by Lebanese filmmakers Maher Abi-Samra, Rania Rafei, Roy Deeb, Leila Hoteit, Chadi Aoun, Corine Shawi and Sara Francis, Nadim Tabet, among others.

Cost
10,000 LL

For more information or to make a reservation
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