Biban on streaming platforms
elmorabba3.fanlink.to/Biban
Biban Official Visualizer
youtu.be/vt4eVIR6Fk8
Renowned Jordanian/Palestinian Indie band El Morabba3 will captivate long-time fans and new enthusiasts once again with their upcoming single, "Biban" (Doors). Following their successful return in February, after a seven-year hiatus, with the track "El Wuhoosh" (Monsters), the band keeps pushing the aesthetic envelope and exploring new artistic horizons. With lyrics co-written by Mohammad Abdallah and Jordanian young gun Idreesi, and sound designed and produced by Basel Naouri, “Biban” recalls Bedouin speech and the rhythms of traditional Khaliji music while mapping the shifting sands of the self, a terrain that remains strangely resistent to charting.
What is the “duality” the singer speaks of in the song’s lyrics, and why can’t it be shown? And who is it, we might ask along with the singer, who “chatters”? Must we always be split, not only between our own barely speakable interiority and the communiqués of society mediating ourselves back to us, but also between our everyday lives in the present and our dreams of history? Our desires and what we think we desire? What we know and what we think we know? “Biban” gives voice to this quandary of the fragmented self unlike very few contemporary songs today, in a world in which the impossibility of expressing love or managing one’s emotions might be as much a postcolonial condition as statelessness.
Accompanying Abdallah’s Bedouin-inflected poetic vocals, Naouri’s polyrhythmic and sample-based grooves sweep across the Rub’ al Khali of the listener’s ear, galloping Trap rhythms and vestiges of earlier, well-known El Morabba3 tunes fluttering in their wake. The cathartic finale recalls El Morabba3’s earlier work, not least the tribal beats on Taraf al-Khait. But the resolution that catharsis usually brings—the satisfaction of chaos overcome, an achieved or “owned” coherence—is missing in “Biban,” a sign, perhaps, that this journey is far from over and that the map can never be the territory.
El Morabba3 releases “Biban” on May 26th, along with a mesmerizing visualizer produced by the renowned Lebanese creative entertainment studio Balkoon and starring the acclaimed performer Paula Saba.
released May 26, 2023
Music Credits
Composed & Produced | El Morabba3
Songwriting & Vocals | Mohammad Abdallah
Music Production & Synths | Basel Naouri
Lyrics | Idreesi & Mohammad Abdallah
Mixing | Antonio Pulli
Master | Pieter De Wagter (Equus)
Record label | Alt Orient
Visualizer Credits
Created | Balkoon
Director | Dany Chamoun
DOP | Michel Nakhle
Actress | Paula Saba
Stylist & Make-Up | Kevork Tavitian
DIT | Vicken Avakian
Camera Assistant | Charly Bou Zeid
Gaffer | Abdo Semaan
Location | Picture House
Equipment | FinalCut Equipped
Editor | Dany Chamoun
VFX | Mark Eid
Colorist | Michel Nakhle
Artwork | Balkoon
Special Thanks to Mazen Rizcalla, Issa Kandil, Forest Studios & Richard Nakhle.