Beirut Birds (طيور بيروت) is a sonic memory capsule honoring (inter)personal stories of migration, displacement, and the cyclical turbulent circumstances in Lebanon. Transforming her multi-year project, multidisciplinary artist and composer Nour Sokhon crystallizes the performance Beirut Birds (طيور بيروت) into her long-awaited debut album. When presented and performed live, it is accompanied by juxtaposed images of the Lebanese capital’s city life and avian migration across the Mediterranean Sea, representing themes strongly woven into the music.
In her variegated artistic process, Nour has undertaken and recorded interviews with diasporas and repatriates to commemorate, share, heal, and envision. These source materials become the album’s core elements that loop, narrate, and return throughout time, with Nour responding with both instruments and her voice. Chanting in dialogue with the interviewees, crafting near-mantras, Nour further congregates these materially-rooted soundscapes by including field recordings that she gleaned during 2018–2021 in Lebanon and her subsequent move to Berlin.
Embedded within the composition are manipulated sounds from objects that symbolize migration, such as office bells, a luggage wheel, car parts, and bureaucratic paperwork. Musically, the songs are enriched by Nour’s improvisations on classical piano, electronics, synthesizers, violin, and various percussion instruments. As time is sculpted and the layers blur, words become specters, while an entropic orchestra of drums and melody rises, giving shape to an in-between space for those who have left, and stayed.
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All digital album sales are donated to Haven for Artists, a feminist arts initiative from Beirut that is currently helping displaced families in Lebanon. The proceeds from the vinyl album cover the production costs and support the artist.
Tracklisting
To be in between, in the moment
Across the flood
Here birds come close
I feel the world is normal
The destruction and the rebuilding
You are the same person
I came with only three things
Justice (part one)
Justice (part two)
Music and artistic research by Nour Sokhon, 2018–2024. Recording, editing, and mixing by Rabih Beaini at Morphine Raum, Berlin. Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk. Cover artwork and typographic design by Farah Fayyad. Photography by Nour Sokhon. Label coordination by Luke Cohlen. Pressed and printed at Monotype Pressing.
"I would like to extend my gratitude to Tania Kammoun for contributing a field recording used on the album; Gabriel Haddad for providing visuals for my live show; Omar Adel for his work on studio video documentation and production; and most importantly, the interviewees who shared their voices and stories: Mahmoud Dabdoub, Asmabug, Kareen Nahas, and Anonymous." – Nour
aural conduct, 2024. This album was published with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture – AFAC. Residency and financial support by LABgamerz in partnership with GMEM.
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12'' vinyl album, comes with a fully printed cover including typographic art, photography, and credits plus a leaflet with liner notes, all wrapped in a bioplastic sleeve featuring a logo sticker.
Invert Dance is a club-oriented compilation aligned by its underlying
tension and paradoxical sound. Some tracks were made specifically for
this release; the others are recontextualised SoundCloud uploads.
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Tracklisting
Mary - accept except
The Social Lover - new shoes
Tala Drum Corps - Ghola
Noise Diva - CanyouhearthEkaching??
Sweepsculp - Throughfall
Nijhof & Toonk - Out here
RDS - U-47-DNS
alefwow - capricorn moon
my name is not mata - nothing physical
All music, recordings, and mixes by the artists, 2018–2023. Compiled
by Luke Cohlen. Designed by Marianne Noordzij. Mastered by Kamilė
Rimkutė. Pressed at Monotype Pressing.
aural conduct, 2023. Label concept and lead by Luke Cohlen. Identity
design by Marianne Noordzij.
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CD compilation, pressed onto a plain silver disc, comes with a
fold-out poster including artwork, titles, liner notes, and credits,
all packed in a hand-cut cover containing an inverted logo print.
Salutingrome graces the second chapter of aural conduct. On Washing
Hands a few of the artist’s finest crafts and outtakes are assembled,
intuitive lyrical music that appeared shrouded in mystery on the
internet in recent years.
The moniker came to life as the aperture for the characteristic
experiments written by Zamity Mitelembe. Echoing his activity in
theatre, these modernistic tracks express solitude and transgression.
Swindling stairwells and winter nights – immerse yourself in an ode to
the season of ice and distance.
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Tracklisting
Folded
Willing Men
Her Body
Poses
Pestilence
Smouldering Evening
All music by Salutingrome (Zamity Mitelembe), 2019–2022. Additional
production by Victor Keyser (4) and Max van Westerop (5). Additional
instruments (guitar and cello) by Hidde Boogaard and Fien Bierman (2).
Additional vocals by Femke Tijseling (3). Recorded and mixed by BUG
& Mannes Kocken (3), Victor Keyser (4), Max van Westerop (5), and
Zamity Mitelembe (1, 2 & 6). Mastered by Jasper Boogaard.
Cover photo by Zamity Mitelembe. Design by Marianne Noordzij. Cassette
(dubbing) by Luca van Grinsven (Off Center). J-card printed at
Werkplaats Typografie.
aural conduct, 2023. Label concept and lead by Luke Cohlen. Identity
design by Marianne Noordzij.
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Cassette album, dubbed onto smokey brown near-translucent tape, comes
with a 3-panel J-card that includes artwork, typographic poetry, and
credits, all packed in a transparent case featuring a logo sticker.
Wholesale import through Rush Hour Distribution.
The first release on aural conduct comes from Nijhof & Toonk.
Growing up together in the nineties, their vibrant friendship has been
marked by a mutual drive to create. Since they both primarily work in
visual and interdisciplinary arts, their music has only occasionally
been shared with others.
This record is the culmination of their multi-year, synchronous work.
One can hear clever electronics fuelled by post-rock and dub-laden
styles, breathing improvisationalist technique as much as studied
precision and composition. Their lingering music draws us into a sonic
zone, where our consecutive emotions are quickly eclipsed while time
proceeds in an altered fashion. Listen attentively.
Listen / purchase
Tracklisting
P(L)SS
Rotsoord
Lauwerecht
Dubcid
P.I.P.
Jutphaas
Cloudmap
Moon Lounge
All music by Nijhof & Toonk, 2014–2021. Recorded at home, Studio
Texel, Bunker Rotsoord, and atelier Jutfaseweg. Recorded and mixed by
Christian Toonk. Mastered by Jasper Boogaard. Cover and insert artwork
by Ronald Nijhof. Pressed and printed at Deepgrooves Leeuwarden.
Insert printed at PRINT workshop HKU.
aural conduct, 2022. Label concept and lead by Luke Cohlen. Identity
design by Marianne Noordzij.
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12'' vinyl album, comes with a fully printed cover, 10'' artwork- and
credit-filled insert plus a leaflet with liner notes, all wrapped in a
PVC sleeve featuring a riso-printed logo sticker.
Wholesale import through Rush Hour Distribution.
aural conduct focuses on releases emphasising process and detail
and provides an open, experimental platform to artists that capture
zeitgeist and timelessness. Poetics, through sound.
aural = connected to sound and listening
conduct = connected to transmission and behaviour
The name aims to imply and serve as a reminder that music is a form of
exchange that can channel sincere and emotive complexity, beyond
language.
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Record label by Luke Cohlen.
Bimonthly residency show on Echobox radio.
Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Contact / inquiries
Events
13.06.2024 @ Garage Noord: Nour Sokhon, Noise Diva, Jad Atoui
25.04.2024 @ Garage Noord: my name is not mata, k cidder, Cardboard Lamb, Luke Cohlen
20.04.2023 @ OT301: Salutingrome, Loma Doom, Luke Cohlen
23.03.2023 @ murmur: Nour Sokhon, Nijhof & Toonk
13.11.2022 @ Le Guess Who? (U?): Salutingrome, Nijhof & Toonk, Mary, Luke Cohlen
05.07.2022 @ Kapitaal: Nijhof & Toonk, Salutingrome
Webdesign by Marianne Noordzij.
