خُلق/هُجر | BORN TO LEAVE

current productions
Written By Lesya Nakoneczny

Active now

  • Wake Island is a music duo originally from Beirut and now based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal and composed of Philippe Manasseh (he/him) and Nadim Maghzal (he/him). Through their music, they attempt to reconcile their Arab roots with their North American lives, infusing Middle-Eastern sounds into a wide range of original music ranging from pop songs to electronic and ambient compositions.

    Their ADISQ-nominated album Born to Leave (2021) explored identity from various personal and societal angles through songs in three languages (English, French and Arabic). Drawing inspiration from their own immigration experience to North America from Lebanon, the album captured the complex array of emotions that are part of this journey from confusion to nostalgia, anger and hope.

    Now, they release a multidisciplinary follow-up to Born to Leave, adapting the 2021 album into a triptych: an new ambient album in collaboration with Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart), a web-based role-playing video game, and an immersive audiovisual live show to bring it all together.

    The خُلق/ هُجر (Born to Leave - revisited) album is a collection of brand-new ambient tracks, written and recorded by Wake Island in collaboration with Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem in My Heart). Based on the conceptual, lived and emotional themes of the original album, Wake Island have mined the complex relationships they have with their homeland of Lebanon and their host country Canada — their identities torn between two seemingly irreconcilable universes. Informed by many perspectives on ‘belonging’ and grief: from the crushing economic collapse in Lebanon and
    unprecedented wave of exodus, to the tensions embodied in emigration and diasporic creative life.

    Adapting and sampling their 2021 album Born to Leave, the music was composed as the soundtrack to a brand-new video game developed by the band, expanding the universe of the album into new multimedia dimensions.

    The audience is also invited to experience the album's emotive and narrative soundtrack in a unique spatial audio listening room, with the vinyl release coming May 2024.

    The accompanying video game takes the themes and musical motifs of the album and adapts them into an interactive experience where story, music and visuals converge, expressing the universality and relatability of their story in a time of rising tensions and adversity. This choose-your-own-adventure game casts participants in a narrative set in Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport as a flight arrives from Beirut. Players must navigate their entry into the country, facing confusion, discrimination, and all the anxieties inherent in crossing borders.

    All of the spirits and themes in the game and the albums come together in a unique immersive audiovisual live performance. Featuring adapted visuals from the game in a multiscreen array played by VJ Giotto—Wake Island is joined by Radwan, as they improvise the new album on oud, buzuq, modular synths, samples and loops in enveloping ambisonic glory.

  • May 1–7 2024 | Montreal, Canada

  • Web (KNGFU)
    Creative producer: Ghassan Fayad
    UX & Design: Colas Wohlfahrt
    Lead Developer: Jerome Leveneur
    Developer: Will Fahey

    Animation and Post-Production
    Creative & Art Direction: Ali Kays
    2D & 3D animation, motion design: Ali Moghnieh, Ali Kays
    Compositing, Chroma keying: Rupak Pariyar, Ali Kays
    Matchmoving: Rupak Pariyar, Ali Kays
    Technical Direction: Ali Moghnieh
    VFX supervision: Ali Kays
    Photogrammetry scan: Daniel Grozdanov (Imagine360)
    Character modeling & rigging: Muhammad Shehroz, Muhammad Nasir Arshad
    Character animation: Ali Moghnieh, Ali Kays

    Video production team
    Creative producer (film): Béatrice Moukhaiber
    Director of photography: Saad Abas
    Art Director: Azar Yazbeck
    Camera operator: Saad Abas
    Machino: Alexandre Michaux
    Logistics Assistant: Wissam Asswad
    Additional camera: Béatrice Moukhaiber

    Music
    All tracks written, produced by Wake Island with Radwan Ghazi Moumneh
    Mixed by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh at Hotel2Tango in Montreal
    Mastered by Harris Newman
    Artwork by Hatem Imam

    Writing
    Story by Wake Island (Nadim Maghzal, Philippe Manasseh)
    French translation by Michel Lopez

    Co-producer
    Envision Management & Production

    Thank you
    Hoda Adra
    Katherine Ouimet
    Christine

  • productions (at) envisionmanagement.com

VISIT WEBSITE

What is it like to immigrate to North America as an Arab? Wake Island explores this question in a triptych featuring an immersive live performance with Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, a spatial audio listening experience and a role-playing video game.

Lesya Nakoneczny
Next

MOONDATA LABPROJECTS