Album Spotlight: ‘Min Ghazzeh Labaghdad, Min Haifa La Beirut’

Ahmed Eid has built a reputation as one of the most incisive voices in Palestine’s alternative music scene, treating music less as expression than as a form of communication. Across his work, he threads together stories of resistance, memory, and longing, set against the backdrop of ongoing violence in Palestine, crafting a distinctive musical language rooted in unfiltered, politically charged lyricism and groove-driven, psychedelic textures.

His latest album, Min Ghazzeh Labaghdad, Min Haifa La Beirut, pushes that language further into a genre-blurring mix of funk, alternative pop, and rock. Written between Ramallah and Berlin, it is shaped by what Eid describes as a reality where politics is not a choice but a condition of existence. At its centre, the ten-track record reads as a reflection on displacement, collective memory, and the promising possibility of liberation.

The album shifts between tones and registers: from the quiet, almost surreal exchange with a bird on “Bukra Kawkab,” to the directness of “Ba’boos,” a rock track channelling frustration and refusal. “Ashiqeen” leans into tenderness with Gaza at its centre, while “Ihku Ilkusas” draws from testimony and loss. Spoken word and poetry sit alongside layered acoustic and electronic arrangements, giving the record a fragmented but deliberate shape.

In SceneNoise’s latest #AlbumSpotlight episode, speaking from Marseille aboard a flotilla heading to Gaza, Eid reflects on writing the album during the ongoing violence in Palestine. He traces its emotional range, anger, grief, and moments of hope, and expands on the stories behind key tracks like “Ba’boos” and “Ihku Ilkusas.” For him, the record also reflects a broader responsibility: to speak about injustice and the systems that sustain it, through music.

Watch the full interview below: