"Arb‘een (40)" is a solo experiment in songwriting, challenging narrative structures and proposing alternative readings of time and continuity. It is rendered by use of oud and guitar, and vocals inspired by the circularity of the project’s recurrent themes. It borrows elements from the Arabic music tradition, and blends them with electronic treatments, sonic textures and loops.

Written, arranged and performed by Youmna Saba

Recorded and mixed by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Recording Studios, Lebanon 

Mastered by Lopazz at Mixmastering, Germany

Produced by Youmna Saba and Fadi Tabbal (Tunefork)

Album cover illustration and design by Joseph Kai

all rights reserved

Arb'een (40)

Njoum

Written and performed by Youmna Saba 
for the RELIEF Centre 2021 conference: 
"Working Through Crisis: Innovations, Possibilities and Limitations of Research in a Volatile Lebanon."

Recorded in March 2021.

طال العمر وتاب
هو العمر ضاع في بالي
كأنّ الوقت ساب
يعيد لي الوقت حالي

ساعة قمر شاب
ضوءٌ غاب في ظلّ شالي
بريقٌ خفيفٌ ذاب
عينك باب الصبح الغالي

RELIEF Center Conference 2021

Al Sobh

40-3

40-2

40-1

Poem by Assulaka (“Assulaka tarthi ‘ibnuha”, 7th c)
Music and performance by Youmna Saba

Based on “Surface Grinder 7” clip, from the Beirut Heritage Initiative sound library
Special thanks to Fadi Tabbal

© youmnasaba 2022

Beirut Heritage Initiative

Ritha'

نسمة هوى خفيفة
من سنين بعيدة
نسمة هوى غريبة
رنّت
composed, arranged and performed by Youmna Saba
home recording

نسمة هوى | Nasmet Hawa

Written and performed by Youmna Saba
Arranged by Youmna Saba and Fadi Tabbal

Madd W Jazr - Njoum

Khyout

Gheym

(Sadeeq)

Leyl

Nafas

'1.2 seconds ago - travelling notes' - Beirut, September 4, 21:07

'1.2 seconds ago - travelling notes' questions the environment as a key factor in the sculpting of artistic languages, whether by transmitting its own aesthetics or imposing compositional structures and patterns that are derived from natural phenomena. Based on the hypothesis that site-specific sensorial stimuli have a primordial effect on shaping artistic expressions, the project is a tune in motion: a 'ritournelle', composed in the city of origin (Beirut) that undergoes changes as it travels along the expedition path. Scales, rhythms patterns and textures are extracted from each stop, altering the songwriter and her songwriting process.


1.2 seconds ago - travelling notes - من ١.٢ ثانية -  رنّّات رحّالة

'1.2 seconds ago - travelling notes'
Chueca, Madrid, September 7, 14:12 
LaLatina, Madrid, September 7, 23:44

1.2 seconds ago - travelling notes - من ١.٢ ثانية - رنّّات رحّالة (CHUECA, SEPT 7)

the spiral and the staircase  - 1.2 seconds ago (AZCA, SEPT 9)

musicians meet - they collapse in time and space

collapsing time - 1.2 seconds ago (PLAZA DE LA PAJA - SEPT 10)

i saw you, collaborating with Moisés Martín Flores - 1.2 seconds ago (EL CAMPO DE CEBADA - SEPT 12)

jam with carbophone (self-made instrument by Andreas), oud and vocals


carbon, collaborating with Andreas Oskar Hirsch - 1.2 seconds ago (LAPARALLELE, SEPT 20)

parallel gnawa, collaborating with Nadir Houboub - 1.2 seconds ago (LAPARALLELE, SEPT 21)

a very old gibson, collaborating with Abdellah El Khajlani - 1.2 seconds ago (LAPARALLELE, SEPT 21)

A snippet of my latest project Arb'een (40) to be released on May 30th.

Written, arranged and performed by Youmna Saba
Recorded and mixed by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Recording Studios, Lebanon Mastered by Lopazz at Mixmastering, Germany
Produced by Youmna Saba and Fadi Tabbal (Tunefork)
Album cover illustration and design by Joseph Kai

Arb'een (40) 

Composition inspired by "numbers", a text written by Shokri Askar (11 years old, Aleppo, Syria) in the context of Haneen exhibition, Beirut, February 2018.

Written by Youmna Saba
Recorded at Tunefork Studios, Beirut, Lebanon

"Haneen – a Collective Work of Lebanese and Syrian artists on the impact of war on childhood.
Two nationalities, Lebanese and Syrian, speaking with one voice in one of Beirut’s iconic landmarks, echoing collective memories of war across time and geography. 
39 poems and stories were written by Syrian children living in informal tented settlements in Lebanon, interpreted by 47 Lebanese and Syrian artists.
This project is unique because the children were given space to freely express themselves and because the artists were given freedom for their own interpretations, resulting in a rare glimpse into minds, hearts and memories of war that both have in common."

2321657 / الأرقام

Based on "La Chute", by Albert Camus

Written and performed by Youmna Saba
Concrete sound "WOODEN STAIRS _ going down", from Radio Mansion sound bank
Recorded and mixed by Fadi Tabbal, at Tunefork
2018, Beirut, Lebanon

Written for the project Radio Mansion, a collaboration between The Outpost and Mansion (Beirut)

--------------------------------------------
Radio Mansion راديو مانشن began on May 7 as a seven-week collective experiment to build a 24-hour internet radio at Mansion in Beirut. The radio space then quickly grew into a community outlet, which brought together a myriad of voices, including underrepresented and marginalized groups, to imagine, produce, and transmit new narratives about who they are, where they are, and where they’d like to go. 

In seven weeks the project succeeded in reaching out to and engaging with more than 100 people and community groups, including residents and users of Mansion, social workers, migrant domestic workers, operators of a suicide hotline, people who identify as LGBT, anthropologists, oral historians, teachers, students, poets, comedians, musicians, and artists from Lebanon and the wider region.

Hubūt هبوط

An orphan track

Written, composed & performed by Youmna Saba
Arranged by Youmna Saba & Fadi Tabbal

Recorded & mixed by Fadi Tabbal, at Tunefork Recording Studios

Beirut, Lebanon, ©2012

غجر | ghajar

collaboration between Piotr Kurek and Youmna Saba as part of the OneBeat program. 
live recording from our gig at Atlas, Washington DC, October 4, 2012
composed by Piotr Kurek & Youmna Saba
lyrics (or the very few words I say) by Youmna Saba

الوقت | al wa'et

Youmna Saba is a musician and musicologist who started her musical career in 2006 and has released four albums to this day (Arb’een (40), 2017, Njoum, 2014, Hal Bint Aabalha Tghanni, 2011, Min Aafsh el Beit, 2008). 

She is currently working on a research project that investigates the relationship between the art of the qasida (a musical form that is based on the vocal improvisation of classical Arabic poetry texts) and electronic and electro-acoustic treatments. 

Youmna has collaborated with many musicians of different musical backgrounds: Mike Cooper (GB), Jean Marc Montera (FR), Kyungso Park (SK), Piotr Kurek (PL), among others. She has taken part in international programs and residencies: Hwaeom Spiritual Music Residency (South Korea, September 2017), Sound Development City (Spain, Morocco, 2016), Gyeonggi Creation Center (South Korea, 2013), OneBeat (USA, 2012) and at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris as of January 2020. 

Youmna holds a master’s degree in Musicology, focusing mainly on the parallels between classical Arabic music and Arabic visual art.

Youmna Saba

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