JULIA SABRA (POSTCARDS) & KARL MATTAR (INTERBELLUM) – Konzert
Julia Sabra is a Lebanese musician and songwriter based in Beirut, Lebanon. She released her acclaimed debut solo album “Natural History Museum,” an intimate collection of songs written between 2020 and 2024, on Ruptured Records on November 1, 2024. She is currently working on her sophomore album, set for 2027.
Sabra has been an active member of Beirut’s alternative scene for over a decade: She co-founded noise/shoegaze outfit Postcards in 2013 and is the band’s lead singer, lyricist, co-composer, guitarist and synth player. She makes up one half of Snakeskin, the acclaimed ambient/dream pop duo alongside long-time collaborator producer/musician Fadi Tabbal. She is also part of the live lineup of Mayssa Jallad and Sary Moussa.
In addition to music, Sabra co-runs Tunefork Studios, a sound collective that has helped shape the experimental, alternative and contemporary scene in Beirut since 2006.
Julia Sabra’s Natural History Museum is quietly devastating. Her lyricism and sensitivity in timbre and harmony is akin for me to the great Linda Perhacs. The songs are intimate and infinite feeling at the same time—I love the raw and soft poetic settings of love and death. [Her] ruminations on the horrors of the war on Gaza, from the perspective of a Lebanese musician based in Beirut, are haunting. In particular, the ghostly organ and synth on the last track on the record, “Minor Detail”, evoke to me the frightening solemnity of death, and a feeling that the ground from underneath has been lifted and displaced.
– Julia Holter, The Fader Artist Picks 2024
The results are breathtaking, recalling other folk mystics like Karen Dalton and Judee Sill as well as more contemporary names like Mazzy Star and Cowboy Junkies. Sabra keeps the lyrics sparse and evocative, and the impressionistic approach suits the music’s minimalism (…) There’s something almost prayer-like about Natural History Museum, a kind of holiness and solemnity that pushes it into a realm beyond our own. The only choice is to attend to it with the closest of listens—all the better to catch its secrets.
– Joseph Edward Keyes, Bandcamp Essential Releases
Foto: Nessim Stevenson
Karl Mattar is a Lebanese singer-songwriter and composer whose music blends intimate folk songwriting with experimental production. After nearly a decade releasing music as Interbellum, he now records under his own name. His debut album as Karl Mattar, The Weather of the World, is set for release in late 2026 via Bagno Records.
Working closely with producer Fadi Tabbal in Beirut, Mattar has developed a distinctive sonic language that bridges acoustic songwriting and electro-acoustic composition. He has performed across Lebanon and Europe, building a reputation for immersive live performances and uncompromising records.
Foto: Rachel Tabet