Snakeskin
‘We Live in Sand’
The Lebanese duo — Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal — just dropped their excellent third album, written in October 2024, as Israel’s war on Gaza was expanding to include attacks on Beirut. Understandably, then, there’s an atmosphere of grief, anger and frustration throughout, but as with so much of the music Sabra and Tabbal make — together or separately — there is hope here too. “How to love in our insignificance?” Sabra sings in “Blindsided.” It is the record’s main theme.
eL Seed
‘Moving Canvas’
The Tunisian ‘calligraffiti’ artist teamed up with Art be a Part and Dubai’s Special Needs Future Development Center for his latest project, in which SNF students assisted eL Seed in painting their new school bus (bought with funds raised by Art be a Part). “Art is a driver for social change. Painting gave the children a sense of ownership and belonging,” eL Seed said in a press release. “This is more than a vehicle, it is a symbol of unity and endless possibility.”
Rubina
‘Darya’
The Persian-Candian singer-songwriter released “Darya” — the third single from her upcoming debut EP “Take Me to the Moon” — late last month. According to a press release, the “haunting, hypnotic” track, sung in English and Farsi, “explores how the ocean’s chaos and calm mirror the human experience of love.” Rubina is quoted as saying that the song “is both the storm and the stillness. It’s the place where human emotion dissolves into nature, and nature dissolves into us.”
