Beirut Birds

Join us for the release of Beirut Birds by artist and composer Nour Sokhon. The debut solo album explores the stories of emigration and upheaval that have shaped Lebanon in recent years. With a heavy heart due to the recent turn of events in Lebanon, the release will no longer be a celebration, but a place of gathering and mourning. Multiple voices from the diaspora community residing in Berlin will be invited to take a moment to place their grief in this collective space through a small contribution of their choice, a dish, a story, a candle, or a poem.

Following the offerings, Nour’s audiovisual performance Beirut Birds will take place, inaugurating her forthcoming album on aural conduct that carries the same title. The evening will end with a conversation between the artist, label founder, and the public.

Beirut Birds serves as a sonic memory capsule, weaving together live improvisations, interviews, field recordings, and sounds of objects that symbolize migration. It reflects the thuds of emotions that reverberated across the country from the 17 October revolution to the ongoing cyclical turbulence of this present day. As written on the album’s text: “...as time is sculpted and the layers blur, words become specters, while an entropic orchestra of drums and melody rises, giving shape to an in-between space for those who have left, and stayed.’’

Nour Sokhon is a Lebanese artist based in Berlin, Germany. Her creative practice is centered around exploring different methods of working with artistic research including interview material, field recordings, and recorded material from an organized site-specific intervention. The research is then translated into sound/music compositions, performances, interactive installations, and moving image work.

In 2019, Nour received the Emerging Artist Prize at the Sursock Museum in Lebanon, for a moving image piece entitled "Revisiting: Hold Your Breath". She has exhibited her artwork internationally and has performed in various sound/music festivals such as the Network Music Festival 2020, This Is Not Lebanon 2021, Punkt Festival 2023, Gaudeamus Festival 2023, United in Grief 2024, Vorspiel 2024, and Biennale d’Aix 2024.