Charbel Haber & Fadi Tabbal: Enfin la nuit

August 4, 2020. A normal day, or as normal as can been in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown across the world.

Not in Beirut. A catastrophic port explosion that rocked a city and nation, killing at least 218 people with 7,000 injured and over 300,000 homeless. The event, one of the worst explosions in history, with the emotional turmoil and economic strain undoubtedly still felt across the city.

Like all other facets of world news, those not directly in the ire see the images of destruction and despair, feel devastated for all of five seconds, then return to their day until the next horrific event unfolds somewhere outside of their orbit. Sadly, this is how the world operates.

In the city’s district of Bourj Hammoud is At Tunefork studios. The studio remains standing, and it’s where Lebanese experimentalist, Fadi Tabbal (The Bunny Tylers, The Incompetents), operates as producer and sound tinkerer (his latest release alongside Julia Sabre, 2000’s Snakeskin).

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Having already worked with the likes of Field Works, Asil Ensemble, Oiseaux-Tempête and Youmna Saba, Tabbal is one of the many experimentalists who is in constant search of like-minded collaborators. Alongside fellow Bunny Tylers member and Beirut artist, Charbel Haber (Scrambled Eggs, Johnny Kafta Anti-Vegetarian Orchestra, Malayeen), the pair bring us the beautiful four-track LP, Enfin la nuit.

Initially the soundtrack to a film by Nadim Tabet, the four tracks accompanied images of youth across the city, dancing at parties and experiencing life-affirming moments just months before the explosion.

Now the sounds on Enfin la nuit take a totally different shape, spun on their axis from the events which followed, and through the lens of minimalism and a dash of Kranky reverence, the compositions are weighed down with an emotional intensity that’s almost too much to bear.

Starting with stirring title track. With cascading modular synths, sombre strings and subtle drones, it’s like the precursor to a funeral. They say art can sometimes be hampered by being too close to the culture, but such as the tragic circumstances which inspired Enfin la nuit, it’s actually the opposite, and here Haber and Tabbal capture one of their country’s darkest days in recent history so poignantly.

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Splicing feedback and warm drones that suffocate Sabre’s harmonies, Chaque rose porte en elle une petite mort evokes the cinematic core more than any other moment on Enfin la nuit. Once again, on Couvre–feu the modular synths form the foundation, with eerie hums that fluctuate and cause the mind to wander. With acute, echoing string sections, they cut through like a butcher blade being sharpened on the cutting room floor.

Nervous in its approach, La certitude de l’aube is a wonderfully majestic finish. With the idea of defiance breaking through like the sun from the storm clouds, the trumpet-led composition produces an atmospheric, narcotic feeling of absolute freedom. It’s the moment where Haber and Tabbal carefully lift the lid on the collective anxiety, if only just for the track’s seven-plus minute duration.

Purely through minimalism, the pair crystalise that feeling of ‘what could be’. It’s a beautiful end to an album that documents the horrors of a city and a nation. What Enfin la nuit also achieves is that stirring feeling of hope. Something that we are constantly told is the agent that kills you. It’s also an agent that holds an untold majestic power, and together Haber and Tabbal find it often throughout Enfin la nuit.

Enfin la nuit is out now via Nahal Recordings. Purchase from Bandcamp.