"

artists music merch video community

Kayfa Taltaqi al-Qulub [Video by Romy Matar]
Ghazel
by Farah Kaddour & Marwan Tohme

Wishlist

supported by
magoski thumbnail
magoski Think of the time
when you
believed
in Could Be
in would be
in the possibilities that hope can bring
think about when it was you
thought of love
and loving
and nothing else
Mattered
most certainly
not war
and death and bombing and
the collateral damage of the planet's
moral fibre
Find me the time
to become one with the
Music.
Listen Here and
Dissapear
TheSlowMusicMovement thumbnail BSHDsantafe thumbnail feyyyy thumbnail Takehiro Shimada thumbnail sautemaville thumbnail nieistotne thumbnail elliotnash thumbnail Michael Bailey thumbnail Elwood P. Dowd thumbnail James Learmonth thumbnail Michał Wieczorek thumbnail Joseph Sannicandro thumbnail Jordan Yamashita thumbnail zacharylipez thumbnail garythornton thumbnail Yadin Moha thumbnail ezgi777 thumbnail Chuck Chambers thumbnail schoppenaas thumbnail hauntghost thumbnail allen_smithee thumbnail dachsolm thumbnail LoZombieIntegrale thumbnail weichezaeune thumbnail Steve Snyder thumbnail mclose thumbnail dmonypeny thumbnail economyoflanguage thumbnail lc-internet thumbnail littlemerman thumbnail casey thumbnail Ella M. thumbnail John Schlotfelt thumbnail Crease-proof thumbnail bm27 thumbnail Dominik Böhmer thumbnail The Sonic Cloth Podcast thumbnail Guillaume Lafrance thumbnail Substandard Nerd thumbnail Greg Bali thumbnail Maciek Stankiewicz thumbnail Dee Haunts thumbnail Petter A Urkedal thumbnail Jean HD thumbnail nihil thumbnail yannblackmetal thumbnail Bryan thumbnail Arpad Okay thumbnail dbaaa thumbnail Joseph Mancine thumbnail jakenewby thumbnail Why did you have to find me? thumbnail Ryan thumbnail shuffle_boil thumbnail <<fresta>> thumbnail Nic Brown thumbnail JM thumbnail hkrfan thumbnail Dale Norton thumbnail sardines thumbnail dfny thumbnail Angetho thumbnail melissakhoury thumbnail alesr thumbnail matthewdickson thumbnail duncanamhp thumbnail Adam Adeane thumbnail quince marcum thumbnail gooseofhermogenes thumbnail dan ichinose thumbnail BAMN thumbnail

Kayfa Taltaqi al-Qulub 00:25 / 04:45

Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
$8 USD or more

Cassette + Digital Album

package image package image package image package image package image

2nd pressing. Edition of 50 cassettes, sold exclusively on Ruptured's Bandcamp page. 15 minutes of audio per side. Artwork by Lina Khalid, design by Maya Chami.

Super Ferro music grade tape, with Magnolia shell, square hub window, oxide leader, and pop tabs. Each cassette is packaged in a thick O-Card on 14-point board w/ CMYK full color print, and delivered in a sealed plastic bag for added protection.

Includes unlimited streaming of Ghazel via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
ships out within 10 days
edition of 50
$12 USD or more

Limited Edition Cassette (1st pressing)
Cassette + Digital Album
package image package image package image package image
Edition of 50 cassettes, sold exclusively on Ruptured's Bandcamp page. 15 minutes of audio per side.
Artwork by Lina Khalid, design by Maya Chami.

Super Ferro music grade tape, with Magnolia shell, square hub window, oxide leader, and pop tabs.
Each cassette is packaged in a thick O-Card on 14-point board w/ CMYK full color print, and delivered in a sealed plastic bag for added protection.

A truly unique product and collector's item. Assembled in Canada.

Includes unlimited streaming of Ghazel via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
Sold Out

1.

Kayfa Taltaqi al-Qulub 04:45 video

buy track

2.

Tajmid Ejbari 03:15

3.

Nawal 03:19

4.

Ghazel 03:43

5.

Bissi 03:21

6.

Wulidna Fil-Barzakh 03:00

7.

Naghmat Al-Ra'i 06:03

about
"Explorations inspired by their native Lebanon, Kaddour and Tohme meld together stringed meanderings with brooding electronica, encapsulating the body of work under the Ruptured Records stable. Ghazel strays to the earthier side of avant-garde. Pure improvisation immersed in locality, and given the fluid nature of the Lebanese underground scene, expect to hear more from this duo in time." - Simon Kirk, Sun-13

"Both musicians are members of SANAM – but while that outfit is experimental, angular rock music, the music on the duo’s album Ghazel is a much more gentle affair, Kaddour leading with Arabic folk style melodies and motifs, and Tohme sometimes following on guitar, sometimes adding electronic textures & drones. It’s beautiful & understated." - Peter Hollo, Utility fog broadcast, FBi Radio

***

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
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
license