Constellation / Canada / 2025
On their second album, Sametou Sawtan ("I Heard A Voice"), the Beirut-based sextet SANAM delivers one of the most vital and urgent records to emerge from Lebanon’s fertile independent scene. Produced by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart), the album marks a shift toward more compact, darker, and nocturnal compositions that bridge the gap between ancient Arabic tradition and experimental rock.
The group’s sound is a thrilling collision of forces: Sandy Chamoun’s visceral, chanting vocals and Farah Kaddour’s intricate buzuq lute are set against a backdrop of pounding angular grooves and psychedelic swirls. By recontextualizing 12th-century poetry alongside contemporary Lebanese texts, SANAM captures the existential weight of living under constant social upheaval.
Recorded between a medieval house in Byblos and the legendary La Frette Studios in Paris, Sametou Sawtan is a disorienting yet deeply beautiful record—a work of ritualistic intensity and gritty avant-garde noise.
FFO: Jerusalem In My Heart, Al-Qasar, Koes Barat, 75 Dollar Bill, and modern Middle Eastern psych-folk.