Interbellum Beirut Interbellum is the project of Lebanese singer-songwriter Karl Mattar. The project blends elements of folk, noise pop, garage rock and ambient music into an idiosyncratic mix centered on Mattar's songwriting. The first iteration of the group released the lo-fi guitar driven "Now Try Coughing" and played its first shows in Beirut in 2016. Sophomore album "Dead Pets, Old Griefs" (2018, Ruptured) expanded the project's palette considerably, adding synthesizers, samples and electronics to the mix. Recorded with producer Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios, the album was released by Lebanese indie label Ruptured to international acclaim. The project and album have made best-of lists in the Arab world and beyond, receiving praise from publications like Gold Flake Paint, The Wire and GQ Middle East among many others. Interbellum performed at leading Lebanese indie festival Wickerpark Festival in 2018 and played over 50 shows in Europe the following year in support of the album. Interbellum's 3rd album "Our House Is Very Beautiful at Night", released on April 7th 2023, is an exploration of the notion of ghosts as intergenerational trauma - on a personal and collective level. The 15 tracks deal with memory, time and the past, casting intimate trauma as a microcosm of Lebanon’s unending cycles of violence, unearthing the crypts where memories and postmemories lie buried. Mattar trades the kaleidoscopic pop rock of the previous album for a more organic and anarchic sound, built around the acoustic guitar and characterized by dense layers of instrumentation, field recordings and various samples. Pascal Semerdjian, drummer for Lebanese dream pop band Postcards, contributes drums. Interbellum’s popular tracks 04 - Ancestral Lines by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:27Z 02 - Enemies (Or The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Enemy) by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:27Z 15 - Dreams Of Rubble by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:24Z 13 - The Storm by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:24Z 12 - The Storm (Detail) by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:25Z 11 - Shadows, Forever by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:25Z 10 - Enemies (Reprise) by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:25Z 09 - Our House by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:25Z 08 - Microcosms by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:26Z 07 - Archaeology (Detail) by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:26Z 06 - Partners by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:26Z 05 - Partners (Detail) by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:26Z 01 - Archaeology by Interbellum published on 2022-12-24T12:47:28Z Some Ghosts (Live on RTVE Radio 3) by Interbellum published on 2020-02-01T20:52:32Z