Beirut Birds by Nour Sokhon – Album Release

Almost a year after its digital launch at SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin, Nour Sokhon’s Beirut Birds makes its long-awaited return to Lebanon. The work, released on the aural conduct label on October 16, 2024, explores stories of emigration, upheaval, and the emotional reverberations of Lebanon’s recent history.

This evening gathers sound, voice, poetry, visuals, and objects, creating a space where works first resonating in Berlin now return to echo in the city that inspired them.

The night opens with Heaven, an audiovisual performance by Beirut-based artist lmxkhfi (Sarah Huneidi). Through looping textures of voice and electronics, the piece explores care, nature, and fragile imaginaries that sustain hope amid ruin.

Next, Dayna Ash (she/they)—performing artist, writer, and founder of Haven for Artists—reads two poems from her collection Merging of the Tide: “My Father’s Dinner Table” and “The Ocean is Louder Than the Sea.” The collection celebrates love in all its forms, and the ways it protects itself.

The evening culminates with Nour Sokhon’s audiovisual performance of Beirut Birds, a sonic memory capsule weaving live improvisations, interviews, field recordings, and sounds of objects symbolic of migration. The work traces emotional reverberations from the October 17 uprising to the ongoing turbulence of today, offering “an in-between space for those who have left, and stayed.” Visuals for the performance are by Gabriel Haddad, and voices throughout are by Mahmoud Dabdoub, Asmabug, Kareen Nahas, and Anonymous.

Beirut Birds was produced with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), LABgamerz in partnership with GMEM, and released by aural conduct, founded by Luke Cohlen.