ZENOBIA "Warriors Never Die" EP (Crammed Discs)
Add Date: 5/9/2023
Release Date: 5/5/2023
FCC: Clean
Focus Tracks: All
RIYL: Acid Arab, Omar Souleyman, A-WA
Zenobia in the press
A refined electronic sound, combining ethereal vibe and hard bass drums (Libération, FR)
I’d heard electronic takes on dabke before, [but] this was trippier and more seductive (Resident Advisor, UK)
Like some crazy Kraftwerk of the Levant (The Guardian, UK)
The acid buzzing of Ksr Ksr Ksr can drive you even crazier than the desert wind (Tsugi, FR)
Incandescent programming… they crystallize the musical creativity of the Near East (Starwax, FR)
Deploys those deliciously intoxicating dabble synth leads cranked up to their sweaty, unrelenting extreme (Tiny Mix Tape, US)
Densely hypnotic… announces the universal calling of Middle Eastern pop (Telerama, FR)
Zenobia’s new EP is a journey into Palestinian folk songs, more specifically the field of women’s songs. Reverting once again to the figure of their namesake (the warrior queen Septima Zenobia of Palmyra, who ruled over the Levant in the third century AD), the electronic music duo imagine that the Queen never died: she moved into hidden dimensions, and has been spreading her message of hope and freedom through the voice of these folk songs.
Zenobia (the band) picked four emblematic folk songs, generally sung by women, and originally related to moments in traditional everyday life (weddings, celebrations, funerals). Over the years, these songs have taken on different meanings, and have grown to become vehicles for the voices of unheard people.
’Tarweeda’, for example, was used by women ever since the days of the British Mandate in the 1930s, as a way of transmitting encrypted messages between political prisoners and their villages. The encryption involved permutations of letters in the lyrics.
‘Ya Yuma’ is a straightforward love song, about the joys of founding a family.
‘Olo La Emo’ is also a wedding song, in honour of the groom. It has sadly become one of the songs performed in memory of martyrs.
‘Hayeed An El Jeshe’ tells the tale of a girl who chooses to run away with the man she loves instead of accepting an arranged marriage. In one section of the story, the lovers are being chased by soldiers, this episode took on new undertones in recent decades.
By revisiting these iconic songs, Zenobia are paying tribute to the role of women singers and storytellers who, for generations, have preserved and transmitted vibrant parts of the Palestinian cultural heritage.
The songs are performed by four different Palestinian vocalists, one for each song: Rola Azar, Sama Shuhhok, Dunia Qarawany and Rina Kardosh.
The Warriors Never Die EP is a special side project, carried out by Zenobia while they’re working on their second album (scheduled for 2024). Aside from its interesting cultural content, it has enabled the duo to develop a new dimension of their music. They’ll most probably use some elements from this refined, mid-tempo excursion and inject them in the powerful and festive electronic music they’ve become known and loved for.
Rewind:
Zenobia are at the forefront of the new, vibrant Palestinian electronic music movement, originating in parallel between Haifa and Ramallah, scattered yet gradually more unified, and now extending across the borders to Amman, Beirut and the diaspora. The band consists of Nasser Halahlih, a pioneer who has been at the core of the scene since its early days, and fleet-fingered keyboardist Isam Elias.
They have released an EP and a debut album (‘Halak Halak’, 2020) on Acid Arab Records, the imprint created by Crammed Discs in partnership with Parisian collective Acid Arab. Based in Haifa, Zenobia have brought their irresistibly festive, fiery live show to venues and festivals around Europe, as well as the Far East and Brazil.