Mayssa Jallad's "concept album" combines her two passions: music and architecture. Haunted by the ghosts of Beirut's civil war, the young woman wanted to give voice to the city's iconic buildings, deeply scarred by this period. Written in collaboration with producer Fadi Tabbal, the music is based on Tabbal's spatial approach to sound and Jallad's research into Beirut's hotel district.
The album consists of two parts:
- Part A: "Dahaliz". It is a walk through the city, during which Mayssa Jallad tries (and fails) to follow an old map of Beirut. Empty skyscrapers propel her into a past filled with sniper violence, and a deceptively glamorous present where the injustice of luxury reigns, dominated by politicians with the blood of war still on their hands. Part B: 'Maaraka'. Mayssa Jallad tells the story of the civil war in different hotels of the city, Holiday Inn, Murr Tower, Hisar, ...
- "The idea, for me, was to inhabit the personality of these towers in each song, as a way of remembering the war in order to appreciate peace."