The brainchild of Yemeni visual artist, Ibi Ibrahim, and German music journalist, Hanno Stetcher, Kabreet have, in recent times, made a name for themselves for fusion of Arabic lyrics and gentle, synth-heavy indie pop.
The last we heard from the duo was in November 2020, with the release of ‘Film Faransi’, a despondent, soft synth-pop tune, deeply entrenched in nostalgia and homesickness, taken from their EP, Masafat. The latest release from the album, ‘Atari’, offers a departure from melancholy, while still holding on to those nostalgic vibes that permeate the EP as a whole.The light and airy love song comes as an ode to the 16-bit video gaming of the eighties and early nineties. The video for ‘Atari’ ironically compiles Oriental tropes with elements of old Nintendo and Atarti gaming to create a new narrative. It is the follow-up-video to ‘Film Faransi’ by director Hala Alsalman starring Iraqi actress Zahraa Gandour from October and ‘Ana Mashi’ shot by Berlin based Artist Dana Engfer released in May, 2020 - and the three have ultimately been compiled in an audiovisual trilogy. What ties the three of them? They all address questions of longing and belonging in a period of time where the idea of distance manifests itself into new shapes and forms. As a duo who has always been constrained by geographic limitation - Ibi working from New York and Hanno from Berlin - the idea of distance is a vital aspect of their work, exacerbated by the widespread lockdowns brought on by the pandemic. Check out the whole EP below.
