Mashrouʼ Leila is not a bandʼs name. It is not a proper noun per se; Mashrouʼ Leila is Arabic for ʻan overnight projectʼ lusting out a microphone, a violin, a bass, two guitars, drums and keyboards. It started out as a music workshop at the American University of Beirut in 2008, an open platform for students of architecture and design, somewhere to experiment with sounds and make things audible. Haig Papazian, Carl Gerges, Hamed Sinno, Omaya Malaeb, Andre Chedid, Firas Abou Fakher and Ibrahim Badr have enjoyed this sound fetish savoring its façade of nonchalance and feeding on its lack of genre – sustaining their collective as Mashrouʼ Leila, an experiment. 

You can hear Leila, cascading melts of masculine vocals only suspended with thrusts of violin, beats and bass – attacked by neurotic melody that means no harm – sometimes tender, even sometimes on pause. Through the music, you can smell where Leila has been, in bed sheets, on sidewalks, jasmines in riﬂes and spilled coffee on dresses as she made you play with aubergines, dancing her dance. Music has constantly been their place to play with things, to match and mis-match, a project. 

In the various performances, Mashrouʼ Leila is a constant attempt to taste and produce, more than happy to harvest anyone from the audience as a guest in their encores. They have performed around Lebanon since 2008, playing in various venues in Beirut, taking over supposed public piazzas as well as clubs, pubs, hybrids and the such – they also played in Zahle, Sour, Jounieh, Saida and Deir el Qamar, each of which pushed forward their thinking about how to go about their music, lyrics and performance. It is only when Mashrouʼ Leila goes live, that you can actually catch a glimpse of Leila. As it talks to you of Beirut, the city that tastes of the absurd, the product of its day-to-day experiences, its stubborn security and lack of the latter, its musical bombshells, incoherent sexuality and thrusting pleasure…narcotic pain – as it brings forward hints of Arabic Tarab, rock, to folk pop, electro, you can see Leila in every man and woman in the silent- come-raving audience. In this trajectory, they participated in music workshops and concerts in Amman and Cairo to maneuver their way into a pan-Arab music scene, to know and to announce, more importantly to grow, musically. 

In March 2009, Mashrouʼ Leila won the Lebanese Modern Music Contest jury prize and public vote organized by Radio Liban in partnership with CCF, Incognito and the Basement. They recorded their debut album with B-root Productions, released in December 2009. The music in the album is a reclamation of the aftertaste; sequel-ing a dose of Beirut.

written by Raafat Majzoub

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Titulaire d’un Master en Sciences de l’Education (option : diversité culturelle, philosophique et religieuse en éducation), je suis actuellement chercheur et assistant volontaire à l’Université libre de Bruxelles. Je m’intéresse principalement aux problématiques d’appropriation et d’intégration des technologies de l’information et de la communication dans les stratégies d’apprentissage des étudiants de l’enseignement supérieur universitaire.

C o m p o s i t i o n s

2012
•	“El sonido de las voces”, OST.
2011
•	“M”, para flauta, oboe, clarinete, saxo alto, trompeta, trombón y Orquesta de cuerdas.
2010
•	“30.000 mariposas”, para Orquesta de cuerdas.
2009
•	“Habitaciones”, para Tuba y Orquesta de cuerdas.
2006
•	“Canciones profundas”, para Orquesta Sinfónica.
•	“V()id”, para 2 violines, viola, celo y contabajo.
•	“STOP the WALL”, versión para Corno, Saxo soprano y quinteto de cuerdas.
2004
•	“STOP the WALL”, para Corno, Saxo soprano y cuarteto de cuerdas.
2003
•	“c3seg”, para cuarteto de cuerdas y video juego.
2001
•	“Música desilusionada”, para Trío de Saxo soprano, Cello y Contrabajo, 3 computadoras y proyección de video (sobre imágenes de Laura Rojas).
•	“Dos visiones apresuradas de la misma cosa” - Parte II - para Cuerdas. 
2000
•	“Música para LR en el CCB”, para 2 violines, viola, cello y contrabajo, música original para la muestra de Laura Rojas en el Centro Cultural Borges (Buenos Aires).
•	“Elefante”, para saxo alto, sicus, tarca, percusión y proyección video.
1999
•	“Variaciones negras”, para Saxo soprano y computadora corriendo SMSrt.
1998
•	“Dos visiones apresuradas de la misma cosa” - Parte I, música electronica.
•	“Inventario” Música original  para la Muestra de Pintura (Centro Cultural Recoleta - Buenos Aires).
•	“La cacerola”, música electronica para ballet.
•	“Historias coincidentes de los Obsevados” para Clarinete, Saxo Alto, Cello y Contrabajo. Música original para una Muestra de pintura (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo - Bahía Blanca).
1997
•	“Sin título”, Overtura para la performance de danza: “Omobramu”.
•	“Iluminado por la duda”.
•	“Antaitl” para Violín, Viola, Cello yContrabajo.
1996
•	“Juego con Dados” para computadora y Trío de Cuerdas.
•	“Mínimas” para Corno, Violín y Cello.
1992
•	“Reflejos” para Piccolo, Flauta, Oboe, Clarinete, Saxo Soprano, Violín, Viola, Cello y Contrabajo.
1991
•	Cuarteto para Flauta, Violín, Viola y Cello.
1990
•	Obra didáctica para Quinteto de vientos, Cuarteto de metales y Cuarteto de cuerdas.

V i d e o s

2000
•	“El caminante”.
•	“Medidas e Imprecisiones”.
2011
•	“Eduardo Korsunsky: todas las vidas, la vida”.
2012
•	“El sonido de las voces”.


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