Ghazel by Farah Kaddour & Marwan Tohme

Ghazel is the sound of two musicians in conversation — curious, open, playful. A meeting of hearts and minds. A living organism.

Composed of Farah Kaddour on buzuq (TILT, SANAM) and Marwan Tohme on guitar and electronics (Postcards, SANAM), the Lebanese duo began as a spontaneous pairing: an improvised acoustic set at Dar Onboz’s Ahel el Dar concert series in 2022. That performance planted the seeds for what would become Ghazel — a seven-track album of minimalist, exploratory, and emotionally resonant compositions, recorded between Tunefork Studios in Beirut and Tohme's home in the Lebanese mountains. Released via Ruptured, Ghazel captures a moment in time for a project in flux.

While both artists are experienced collaborators — within acoustic ensembles and indie rock bands — Ghazel strips things down to their essence. Kaddour’s mastery of the buzuq shines throughout: her playing is fluid and expressive, both grounded in tradition and fearlessly experimental. Tohme responds with subtle yet vivid interventions — plucked guitar, ambient drones, processed electronics, noise and texture. Together, they deconstruct and reimagine Arabic folk motifs, letting melodies emerge, unravel, and return.

Opener “Kayfa Taltaqi el-Qulub” (“How Hearts Meet”) feels like a statement of intent: the gentle unspooling of a musical language — melodic figures and ringing buzuq backdropped by spectral soundscapes. In “Nawal,” Kaddour strums the buzuq like a guitar, her wordless humming drifting through the track like a lament across a vast expanse. "Ghazel” (“Yarn”) recalls the roots of the project, with unprocessed guitar and buzuq weaving tightly around each other, two musical voices merging into one. Other tracks flirt with noise, loops, and drones. “Wulidna Fil-Barzakh” (“We Were Born in Purgatory”) transfigures the buzuq into a ghostly shimmer that shifts and meanders across time and space.

There’s something deeply alive in these recordings — unsurprising, perhaps, for a project that grew out of live performances and retained that improvisational spark. It is spontaneous and spirited — a captured breath. Though both artists remain key members of the experimental group SANAM, this project stands apart — its own world, its own sonic vocabulary. Ghazel is both rooted and exploratory, intimate yet expansive. A quiet kind of magic.

Karl Mattar, May 2025

Tracklist

1.	Kayfa Taltaqi al-Qulub	4:46

2.	Tajmid Ejbari	3:16

3.	Nawal	3:19

4.	Ghazel	3:44

5.	Bissi	3:22

6.	Wulidna Fil-Barzakh	3:00

7.	Naghmat Al-Ra'i	6:03

Videos

Credits

released June 27, 2025

Music composed, performed and produced by Farah Kaddour & Marwan Tohme at Tunefork Studios and Marwan’s home in Jouret el Ballout, Lebanon.

Except Track 1, which is a reinterpretation of a traditional Doulab Nahawand, and Track 4, a reinterpretation of Longa Jaharkah, composed by Mohamad Abdelkarim.

All instruments by Farah Kaddour & Marwan Tohme. Vocals by Farah Kaddour.

Mixed by Marwan Tohme at Tunefork Studios.
Additional mixing by Fadi Tabbal and Anthony Sahyoun.
Additional production by Fadi Tabbal.

Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering, Montreal.

Artwork by Lina Khalid. Design by Maya Chami.

Thanks to Dar Onboz, Fadi Tabbal, Anthony Sahyoun, our friends and families.

RPTD067

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