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

Arabic follows:
Almond Blossom | Terez, Yazan and friends
“Khalta Shamie”- An Indie Alternative world music born of the moment: mixing Pop, Jazz, Rock, Soundtracks with hints from the east, united by specific features from Al Sham - all written at that special place where the sun is woven. 
Terez Sliman and Yazan Ibrahim are a duo that met between Haifa and Majdal Shams with all the daily contradictions and life’s small details in both places. They realized that what connected them was greater and clearer than any label. In one word it was: Al Sham. 
Music brought them together in the winter of 2010 to produce music and participate in theatre productions - this led them always to a new questions. 
Just as almond trees blossom with no expectations or plans in a temperate climate, this band came together somewhere between spontaneity and the deliberately planned, between theatre concerts and bar jams the band took shape in the winter of 2013, laying down its foundations and letting the road lead its way – and there - RAIN had the last word.  
Terez, Yazan along with five other musicians who are mostly members of the band Toot Ard from the Golan Heights  : Hassan Nakhleh, Amr Mdah , Shadi Awidat, Rami Nakhleh in addition to Hellanh Khater.  met as friends where love was purer than water and where green was not merely a colour. The seven musicians produced songs with indications of both uproar and passion. The songs speak of a HOPE that brings us back to the most beautiful beginnings - LOVE- to life’s blossom – PEOPLE- and to the eyes that LAUGH despite all the sadness of the UNIVERSE. 
Almond Blossom, a musical journey, its home is the skies and earth is simply a station.
Join our journey…

تريز يزن والأصدقاء | زهر اللوز

"خلطة شاميّة " - موسيقى عالميّة مستقلّة إبنة اللّحظة – بوب، جاز، روك، موسيقى تصويريّة ونفحات من الشّرق توحّدها ملامح بلاد الشّام-، كتبت ولحّنت حيث تجدل الشّمس.
تريز سليمان ويزن إبراهيم ثنائي الجهد ثالثه، التقيا ومعهما حيفا ومجدل شمس بكلّ ما فيهما من تناقضات الحياة اليوميّة بتفاصيلها الصّغيرة، ليجدا أنّ ما جمعهما واحد أوسع وأقرب من كل التّسميات: الشّام.
جمعتهما الموسيقى في شتاء 2010 فكان النتاج موسيقى ومسرح والكثير من التجارب، "فهي الباب الأصدق نحو السؤال القادم".
كما شجرة اللّوز بلا توقّعاتٍ ولا خطط في مناخٍ معتدل بين العفويّة والمدروس، بين عروض المسرح والبارات أخذت الفرقة شكلها في شتاء 2013 ومشت تاركةً خُطاها تريها الطّريق، فكان للمطر كلمة.
تريز، يزن وخمسة موسيقيين معظمهم أعضاء فرقة توت أرض الجولانيّة: حسن نخلة، عمر مداح، شادي عويدات رامي نخلة إضافةً إلى هيلانة خاطر اجتمعوا كأصدقاء من حيث الحبّ أصفى من الماء والأخضر ليس مجرّد لون،  لينتجوا أغانٍ فيها ضربٌ من الشّغب والشّغف، فيها الأمل بمستقبلٍ يعود بنا إلى أجمل البدايات -الحبّ- ، إلى زهر الحياة -الناس- وإلى عيونٍ تضحك رغم حزن الكون.
زهر اللّوز، رحلةٌ موسيقيّة سماءٌ بيتها والأرض محطّة.



Shaik Salekin took up guitar as an instrument almost a decade ago. It was because he thought it looks cool even if one cannot play it. Astonishingly after a few years he found himself performing in front of thousands of people. Cool.
He completed BSc in the field of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and got into some kind of engineering day job, but his brain had other plans so he restarted engineering in the audio field.

Lately, he is into research of music history, the effect of music on human life, Biography of great musicians.

Tajdar is a Multi-instrumentalist, Songwriter, Composer, Producer. His debut album "What Colour Is Your Raindrop" which features varied instruments from across the globe is now available on iTunes and links given below. 
Music from this album can be heard on prestigious international films.
"Dastaan" on legendary Iranian filmmaker "Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film THE PRESIDENT.
watch trailer here 
bit.ly/1u6pRWc
Academy award winner Emma Thomson's film SOLD features more songs. The Rolling Stone magazine writes abt this : http://bit.ly/12NROVL
Voted amongst Top Albums of the year by The Rolling Stone and Rock Street Journal.
His recent film MuktiBhawan's trailer : http://bit.ly/2ocaLm9
Past collaborations/performances include Amyt Datta, Gulzar, Blackstratblues, NZ songwriter Greg Johnson, Karsh Kale, Fred White(Balam), Anusheh Anadil, Nitzan Sagie. He has also been a part of award winning soundtracks for films by Anurag Kashyap productions, Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh. 

ROLLING STONE Magazine 
"uplifting, reflective, reassuring...melding of twilight's soft sensory sound"
GIBSON GUITARS 
"a rare musician, constantly exploring, devoted to his craft...Tajdar Junaid is that sort of artist"
BBC UK
"poignant and soulful"

Lead Singer,Guitarist, Composer
Jal The Band
concerts@jaltheband.com
www.jaltheband.com
Producer, CEO
GM Studioz
info@gmstudioz.com
www.gmstudioz.com


Zaba Hoque is following