Ensemble 1: Al Jadi

Kinematik is a Lebanese post-rock ensemble hailing from the village of Reyfoun in the Lebanese mountains. Formed in the summer of 2014, Kinematik recorded its debut album Ala' in the spring of 2017, and released it later that same year with Lebanese indie label Ruptured. This was followed later that year by a string of performances in Lebanon, as well as a number of European dates as part of a tour organized by Beirut & Beyond International Music Festival. Both Ala' and its follow-up Murur al Kiram were recorded and co-produced by Fadi Tabbal from renowned Lebanese recording studio Tunefork. Murur Al-Kiram was released by Ruptured in the winter of 2020, in the early days of the bloody Lebanese uprising and the Covid-19 pandemic. Kinematik spent the best part of 2020 under lockdown, trying to come to grips with Lebanon's and the world's new realities, battling societal, economical and sanitary hurdles and obstacles. In November 2020, upon receiving an invitation from Irtijal Festival in Beirut to perform in its 20th edition, the former trio evolved into a full-blown ensemble, comprising a total of 6 musicians - the core line-up of Anthony Sahyoun, Rudy Ghafari and Akram Hajj was joined by modular synth players Jad Atoui and Ziad Moukarzel, as well as drummer Teddy Tawil. The Irtijal performance laid the roots for a series of recording sessions, that coalesced a few months later into the long-form, elaborate compositions that make up "Al Jadi", the band's third album - 4 slabs of brooding, elegiac post-rock, recorded and mixed by Fadi Tabbal, mastered by Harris Newman of Greymarket fame, and packaged in a superb sleeve courtesy of Studio Safar's head of design Hatem Imam.