Marjaa: The Battle Of The Hotels
Bandcamp
简介
“Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels” is a concept album born of the idea of merging singer/songwriter Mayssa Jallad’s two vocations: music and urban research/architectural history. Written in collaboration with producer Fadi Tabbal, the music builds upon Tabbal’s spatial approach to sound and Jallad’s research on Beirut’s Hotel District.
The album is a reference to Jallad’s Historic Preservation master's thesis, in which she detailed the history of the “Battle of the Hotels”, a 5-months battle that took place in Beirut at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, from October 22nd, 1975 to March 29th, 1976.
Jallad saw architecture as a main protagonist of the battle, as she discovered it was the first high rise urban battle in the world. The close of the battle resulted in the 15-year Green Line, an urban rift which split Beirut into “East and West”, restricting movement and communication and creating a violent divide that still resonates today.
The album comprises two parts. Part A: Dahaliz, is a stroll in the city, where Jallad tries (and fails) to follow an old map. Musician Youmna Saba is a companion in this journey of remembering the once winding corridors (“Dahaliz”) of the city, destroyed by new developments since the 1960s. Empty skyscrapers propel her onto a past filled with the violence of snipers, and a present filled with the glamorous injustice of empty luxury real estate endorsed by powerful warlords-turned-politicians.
In Part B: Maaraka, Jallad inhabits the building of the Battle of the Hotels, as its events unfold. She calls the fighting militias the Blues and Reds, respectively the Lebanese Front (Christian Nationalists) and the Lebanese National Movement (Pro-Palestinian leftists), leveling the playing field, and drawing a map of the battle through songwriting. Sary Moussa produces the conclusion of the battle in “Holiday Inn (March 21 to 29)”, which ends with the ultimate severance of the city of Beirut.
The music caters to post-war youth who have never been taught this difficult history. Once we consider the “Battle of the Hotels” as our common heritage, it provides an opportunity to teach the value of civil peace. It is also a call to protest for the renewal, rather than the recycling of the political class that has once destroyed the country and holds us, to this day, hostage of its violence.
ACCLAIM FOR MARJAA:
"Singer/songwriter and urban researcher Mayssa Jallad draws a map of the battle with her music, vocals and acoustic guitar, accompanied by Fadi Tabbal's synths, percussion and field recordings." – The Wire, #41 Best Albums Of 2023
"There’s a stoic determination in the purposeful acoustic guitar strums that hold the fractured sonic architecture of Mayssa Jallad’s “Markaz Azraq (December 6)” together. Her words carry the weight of a thousand suns. Still, her delivery is plaintive and unafraid as she tells the story of a nameless man who lost both sons during the Battle of the Hotels. Once the instrumental palette expands, the warm glow from Fadi Tabbal’s synth personifies the steely perseverance needed in the face of such destruction." – Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis, Best Albums Of 2023
"With the help of Fadi Tabbal and a selection of Ruptured-affiliated musicians, we're treated to a highly evocative & moving collection of narrative songs (even for those of us who don't speak Arabic), which musically inhabit a space on the corner of 1970s US folk, Arabic melisma and sound-art. A haunting, engrossing work." – Peter Hollo, Utility Fog (FBi Radio, Best Albums Of 2023
"Marjaa: The Battle Of The Hotels is a record that sidesteps the pitfalls that other works concerned with atmosphere or memory fall into. Jallad’s record acts as a slow burning process of revelation." – Richard Foster, The Quietus
"Lebanese singer Mayssa Jallad showcases her incredible voice on debut album Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels. Her breathy intimacy creates an atmospheric Arabic blues, yearning on album highlight Mudun." – Ammar Kelia, The Guardian
"In the end, the album, like the city on which it is based, feels like an infinite loop of history, relayed through the brave yet saintly voice of an artist who has taken the task of documenting the past through music." – Christina Hazboun, Bandcamp
"Historical trauma, strings, drones, metallophones and buzuks wrap around powerful stories and gossamer vocals on Lebanese singer's tender, intimate debut. With shades of Nico, Jarboe and Elizabeth Fraser, '80s' 4AD fans will rejoice." – Andy Cowan, MOJO
"Singer/songwriter and architectural historian Mayssa Jallad and a host of Lebanese musicians… have made a rich, sometimes transcendiary sonic mapping of a memory of war. This is an extraordinary record and one that you should approach with no qualms… like Matana Roberts’ work, this is a soundtrack that directly deals with traumatic memories that have ceased to inhabit their original form and need to be conjured up in ways that both lure the listener in, and allow the information to be imparted in a way history is not normally taught... utterly hypnotic… a record that can leave you initially wondering what is going on whilst realising you are listening to something really special…" – Richard Foster, Louder Than War
"In an overwhelmingly creative and critical act, Mayssa Jallad turns the destruction of the Lebanese Civil War into a stunning,
two-sided album driven by poetic songwriting mixed with historical narration, lush strings and synths, gentle drones, and her
incredible vocal prowess." – Maha ElNabawi, SceneNoise
"As it progresses, "Marjaa" seamlessly fuses folky introspection, orchestrated drama, crackling electronica and field recordings. Sometimes – again, without any incongruity – within the same song... This bold, multi-layered album is utterly accessible. A triumph." – Kieron Tyler, The Arts Desk
"(Marjaa) is, as one might expect, a sombre affair largely comprised of Jallad's delicate vocals backed by acoustic guitar and ethereal synthesizer. Elsewhere, co-composer and producer Fadi Tabbal adds the crackle of distant artillery and a ghostly wind between the high-rise blocks." – Daniel Spicer, Songlines
"As a lyricist, Jallad is poetically laconic. One track, 'Kharita', from the Dahaliz section, has two just lines: 'I walk the streets alone, in my hand a map/ That I don't understand. It's this precise, minimal weightiness that helps make Marjaa such an accomplished and unusual album." – Louise Gray, New Internationalist