Unexpected encounters often yield unexpected results. It is easy to get lost in Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s extensive discography. Especially if your eye (and ear!) is drawn to the albums recorded under the name Jerusalem in My Heart, which take Arabic music as their starting point, falling somewhere in the vicinity of bands such as Land of Kush, Praed or Sanam. These unexpected collaborations sometimes result in overlooked releases, such as the exceptional The Sentimental Moves – a project that brings together musicians from different worlds, recorded with Canadian guitarist Eric Chenaux – essentially, before Moumneh fully established his distinctive style straddling those worlds.
In Montreal, Moumneh runs a recording studio, Hotel2Tango, which is situated next door to the headquarters of Constellation Records. It hosts the leading figures of the contemporary electronic, post-rock and avant-garde scenes, releasing unique musical works into the world, yet also serving as a focal point for this community and a hallmark of an aesthetic or a way of thinking about music, not necessarily defined by genre. In these circumstances, he collaborated during improvisations with Frédéric D. Oberland, co-founder of the French group Oiseaux-Tempête, and, among others, with Foudre! – which, despite being on the other side of the ocean, shares many commonalities with the aforementioned aesthetic, somewhere at the intersection of post-rock, dark-folk and trance-like, impressionistic soundscapes.
Together during the sessions, the musicians combined their experiences, blending krautrock-style drive and percussive trance elements with harsh, swelling synths, saxophone parts, bouzouki, rababa, clarineau and Moumneh’s laments. Eternal Life No End is like a contemporary journey into darkness, leaving no illusions in today’s brutal world. Already, ‘Squeal of Swine’ unfolds from a driving beat into a dark, thickening landscape, where percussion sets the rhythm, and the string-based layers gradually build. Similarly, though somewhat calmer, as if at the opposite end of the spectrum, ‘A Dream That Never Arrives’ guides, as if we were being led through a rubble of sound, where a saxophone weaves a musical lament over the ruins we pass, a sound devoid of hope commenting on the world’s disintegration. And although the music here often arises from contrasts between acoustic and electronic sounds, sporadic brass interludes, or endless stretches of rhythm, these are not always obvious elements.
At times, as in the album’s opening track, the rhythm seems to vanish into a sea of electronics – harsh, distorted, as if intended to overwhelm the listener, like a soundtrack to contemporary conflicts designed to disorient and plunge one into chaos, where pulsation and anxiety form the soundtrack of everyday life. What is fascinating here is Moumneh’s voice, which, distorted and filtered through effects, comes across somewhat as a parable from beyond the world, a phantom hovering over a marching form, an escalating procession that disturbingly poses a question about the state of today’s world. This dark landscape is enhanced by an expanded instrumental palette: the daf (a Middle Eastern frame drum) and bongos, a modified electric rababa, a trembling bass, and other synthetic filigrees from Buchla and Oberland’s Deckard’s Dream synthesisers.
The entire album is built on contrasts – delicate percussion is balanced by dense synth layers, wind instrument interludes, and post-rock walls of electrified bouzouki. In this dark and deepening trance, we can just as easily lose ourselves as we can give in to reflection. In the lamenting vocals, which often sound very melodic and instrumental, one can let one’s thoughts wander, and perhaps even find solace. Eternal Life No End, despite its cover featuring ominous, fairy-tale creatures and an initial focus on the pursuit of darkness and hell, conceals within it emotionally resonant melodies. Delicate string arrangements, saxophone enchantments, bass chord changes, and Moumneh’s seductive vocals lend this album its uniqueness and perhaps also a glimmer of hope in times of darkness and anxiety.
