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Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of Ziad Rahbani's cult album, "Bennesbeh Labokra...Chou?" released in Lebanon only and mixing arabic music with Jazz, Bossa Nova and other western influences. Hailed as an absolute classic, the album is the soundtrack to his eponymous play and has been highly sought-after by DJs and collectors around the world. Curated by Lebanese-born music expert Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the album is reissued on vinyl for the first time since 1978, featuring original gatefold sleeve, remastered audio and a 2 page insert with a new introduction by Choueiry. When Ziad Rahbani released "Bennesbeh Labokra... Chou?" he was only 22 years old. He had started to make an impression on the Lebanese cultural scene a few years before, while still a teenager, composing and releasing albums under his own name. Born into an illustrious musical family - his mother is the legendary Lebanese Diva Fairuz and his father, Assi Rahbani, was a renowned composer and part of one of the most famous Lebanese groups, The Rahbani Brothers - Ziad quickly gained exposure as a gifted composer and producer. When his father fell ill in the mid 70s, he took over as Fairuz's producer which led to a fruitful collaboration starting with the 1979 album "Wahdon." ?Highly influenced by other genres of music, Rahbani had started bringing modern western influences to traditional arabic music. 1978 saw the release of two key albums by the young musician, the Disco 12-inch "Abu Ali" which went on to become one of the most sought-after Arabic albums on the international DJ scene and "Bennesbeh Labokra... Chou?" which follows "Abu Ali" closely in many diggers' want-list. ?A soundtrack to Rahbani's eponymous play, the album "Bennesbeh Labokra… Chou?" gathers all the musical interludes heard during the play, a social diatribe about the Beirut society underlining the difficulties of living in the tense social and political climate of the Lebanese civil war. Written by and starring Rahbani, the play follows the everyday life and problems of a young couple running a cafe in the heart of Beirut. The play underlying Rahbani's leftist sensitivity was an immense success and the album was released the same year (the complete play was also released over three LPs). ?"Bennesbeh Labokra… Chou?" is a skilful blend of Arabic music and Bossa-nova ("First Introduction" - the recurring theme of the album), groove with the funky beat of "Second Introduction" and the jazz vibe of "Variation 3" and "Variation 4." It's also interesting to hear an early version of "Al Bosta" which would grace Fairuz's 1979 album "Wahdon" in a faster, funkier version also produced by Rahbani." ?with a knack for cinematic orchestrations reminiscent of Lalo Schifrin, Ziad Rahbani also brings more complex arrangements to the album on such tracks as "Variation 5" making the album such a rich listening. Undoubtedly one of the most important albums recorded in the Middle East which Wewantsounds is glad to reissue in its full glory with remastered audio and original artwork.

A Restored Piece of Palestinian Sonic History

More than 50 years ago, teenager Zeinab Shaath recorded a set of revolutionary folk music — the first English-language songs to lift up the Palestinian cause to the wider world. Inspired by Vietnam-era protest music from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, “The Urgent Call of Palestine'' record was intended to share the stories and messages of Palestinian resistance to an international audience.

The first song Shaath composed in her parents home was the titular “Urgent Call of Palestine,” with lyrics from the Indian poet Lalita Panjabi. At just 16 years old, she began playing folk music on a guitar that her sister brought back from studies in the U.S. As young people across the West took to the streets to protest the American imperialist war, Shaath saw parallels in the fight for Palestinian liberation and set out to celebrate that struggle in her musical poetry.

Shaath’s stirring performances of “The Urgent Call of Palestine” song galvanized leading Palestinian artists, intellectuals and youth. In 1973, Shaath was immortalized in a starry film shot by exiled Palestinian artist Ismail Shammout in the mountains of Lebanon.

Shaath recorded three other songs that drew on the poetry of luminaries such as Mahmoud Darwish, Mueen Biseso and Abd El-Wahab Bayati. The resulting 7-inch album was designed to reach the global stage at a time when artists, writers and musicians across the Arab world created art highlighting the Palestinian struggle. Armed with a guitar and her dulcet voice, Shaath went on to perform across three continents, carrying her hopeful message to young people across the world.

Record labels Discostan and the Majazz Project are honored to reissue a lovingly remastered version of “The Urgent Call of Palestine,” bringing Shaath's songs of protest and solidarity to the ears of a new generation. Shaath’s place in a global history of anti-colonial protest music has until recently been overlooked.

As the world again turns to the liberation of the Palestinian people, we invite you to listen to an far-reaching voice for the humanity of a people long oppressed, until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem again.

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The album is licensed from artist Zeinab Shaath. Any profits from the sale of the record will be donated to the continuing efforts of Majazz to create an archive of Palestinian music as well as relief efforts for the Palestinian people.

Ukrainian folk instruments dissolve into abstract psychoactive sounds from the improvisational universe. The meditative engine of multi-instrumental music drives the magical means of influencing perception. This is the sonic amulet, which is decorated with radiant tones and the colorful ceremonial musical outline. Mythological music is spirited by epic historical times and ideas of freedom, dignity, and bravery. The acquired knowledge of ancient generations is infused into the present tense and crystallized into the art of liberation.

Ltd to 500 copies, no repress.

The sought after LP from Zann ‘Strange Ways / Inside Jungle’ originally released as a private press in 1990 finally receives a full reissue.

Zann started life as a 7-member live band in 1982. Founder member Udo Winkler had been a part of New Wave & Post Punk band Konec touring extensively and releasing one LP on Polydor titled ‘Schrille Blitze’. Zann was an outlet for more experimental works heavily influenced by Brian Eno's collaborations with David Byrne and Jon Hassell, German bands like Embryo and Dissidenten, David Sylvian and middle & far eastern music.

In 1988 Udo and Hjalmer Karthaus built a small basement studio with a 4 track tape machine and musical experiments began in earnest. After the limitations of playing live it was an acoustic wonderland and they gave themselves no musical boundaries. The unlimited studio time meant they could pick up ideas and develop pieces gradually, friends would come to the studio to play and songs evolved from extensive jamming sessions. The resulting LP has Middle Eastern instrumentation at its core, particularly wind & string instruments such as the Tabla and Gong, and is a melting pot of influences incorporating elements of Ambient, Jazz and Folk with strong synth programming on a number of tracks. The band pressed up a handful of copies and sold them exclusively at record fairs in Germany and in the intervening years the LP has become highly sought after with copies changing hands for 150 Euros.

The LP has been fully remastered from the original DAT tapes with new full sleeve artwork from Bradley Pinkerton and is pressed on 180 Gram Vinyl.