This past October, Morphine and CTM Festival joined forces with several Beirut music initiatives – Irtijal Festival, Ruptured, Tunefork Studios, The Ballroom Blitz, and Frequent Defect – plus Unsound to create a 17-hour livestream fundraiser for the Lebanese Musicians' Fund, an initiative set up by Tunefork Studios in order to provide relief to musicians impacted by the deadly blast of August 4th in Beirut. The marathon event symbolically took place on the day of the Lebanese revolution.
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In order to revisit this extraordinary event, in which many of Beirut’s musicians and cultural producers came together with artists and organisers from Europe and beyond, select sets will be re-streamed as part of the CTM 2021 programme. Electro-acoustic musician Abed Kobeissy creates works inspired by his local urban soundscape. Lebanese multi-instrumentalist and singer/spoken word performer Nadia Daou aka NÂR uses a variety of instruments including electric guitar, synth, guembri, and karakeb, while exploring loops and creating complex rhythmical improvisations to present her words and poetry. For this unique performance, she is accompanied by Akram Hajj, the drummer from Lebanese post-rock ensemble Kinematik. Singer/songwriter Aya Metwalli joins her eerie sonic experiments with Calamita, the duo of guitarist and Irtijal co-founded Sharif Sehnaoui and rock improvisor Tony Elieh. Jad Atoui is a music composer, sound designer and electronic experimentalist that uses bio sensors, field recordings, and analogue gears to create a unique soundscape. Known as »the hardest working man in Lebanon's alternative music scene,« Tunefork Studios founder Fadi Tabbal creates solo work using guitar and stripped-down acoustics with a tinge of shoegaze. A densely layered collage by tape-loop improviser Marta De Pascalis set within a pastoral sunset, and an acoustic set by the incomparable duo Senyawa performing in their studio hit by dense rain, hint at some of the international artists that had joined the marathon event.