SANAM came together in 2021. In many ways, their grouping is emblematic of a certain sense of social freedom ushered in by the Lebanese October Revolution in 2019. “Things really opened up,” guitarist/keyboardist Anthony Sahyoun tells Daniel Spicer in The Wire 499. “There used to be more of a cliquey thing where the experimental kids would hang together, the rock kids would hang together, the Arab music kids would hang together, and the jazz kids would hang together. Now everyone plays with everyone.

“Beirut is actually impressive for how much weird and interesting music there is in a city that is so tiny,” he adds. One of the major backbones of this fertile scene is the long-running Irtijal Festival which, since 2000, has presented adventurous bills mixing jazz and improvisation with noise, free rock and more. Indeed, Irtijal provided the impetus for SANAM’s formation, when the festival’s technical director Fadi Tabbal and artistic director Sharif Sehnaoui reached out to the group’s members to collaborate with Hans-Joachim Irmler, co-founder of German experimental rock iconoclasts Faust. “The idea was to put up a weird band to play with a weird guy, because Hans is a very, very weird guy,” laughs Sahyoun. In preparation for their festival appearance, this newly formed ensemble spent three days improvising with Irmler. “We didn't talk about music at all,” Sahyoun recalls. "The only thing we talked about was food. Hans is this kind of guy where he does not like to talk at all. As soon as it becomes a little bit talking, he stops us and we go get sandwiches.”

Here, SANAM curate an exclusive Wire mix of their influences and collaborators.

Tracklist

Jerusalem In My Heart “Al Affaq, Lau Mat, Lau Lau Lau Lau Lau Lau”
Land Of Kush “Iceland Spar”
Jad Atoui “Cycles Of Fate Part 2”
Samina Hassan Syed “Rahiye Vo Naal Sajjan De Rahiye Shah Hussain”
Mica Levi “Slob Air”
Sary Moussa “I Will Never Write A Song About You”
Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet “The Water Rises”
Senyawa “Al Kisah I”
Gilla Band “The Weirds”
NZE NZE “A Kele Nkoo Oking”
Eiko Ishibashi “Evil Does Not Exist”
La Monte Young “Piece For Cello And Saxophone”
Noura Mint Seymali “Ya Oumana”
Snakeskin “Homecoming”
Halim El Dabh “Leiyla Visitations One”
Rachid Taha “Ah Mon Amour”
Alireza Mashayekhi “Yaad”
Yasmine Hamdan “Hal”
Nadah El Shalzy “Kaabi Aali”
Fairuz “Dhia’Anou”

Daniel Spicer’s full interview with SANAM appears in The Wire 499. Pick up a copy of the issue here. Subscribers can also read the review in the digital library.