Separation From Habit (CS)

"A beautiful album of granular & tape-processed piano recordings made between 1975 & 1985 by Georges Tarazi, along with archival radio recordings which bring the music into conversation with Lebanon’s many upheavals, and adds layers of emotion to the historical audio. A Separation From Habit might be more deeply wrenching if you understand Arabic and know the last 50 years of Lebanese history, but it packs a punch regardless." – Peter Hollo, Utility Fog broadcast, FBi Radio

"I’ve written in prior editions of this column about music that helps the listener make sense of societal fracture in its aftermath, but here we find a record created within that fracture, not seeking healing or closure, but dwelling unflinchingly on a present defined by rage, devastation, and grief." – Patrick Clarke, The Quietus

Lebanese musician, producer, and sound engineer Joy Moughanni presents his debut solo album, A Separation From Habit—a deeply personal yet universally resonant exploration of trauma and memory. Blending archival tape recordings, electronic manipulation, and sonic collage, Moughanni crafts an intricate soundscape that examines cycles of conflict and emotional survival.

At the core of the album are recordings made between 1975 and 1985 by the late Georges Tarazi, which Moughanni repurposes to interrogate Lebanon’s ongoing crises. Created during the turbulent events of October 2024, the album transcends the narrative of post-war identity, offering a raw meditation on grief and the struggle to process collective and personal histories.

A Separation From Habit immerses listeners in Moughanni’s sonic world—a reflection of life in a country where upheaval is constant, and grief often gives way to survival. The album’s opening track, “The Voice I’ve Yet To Understand,” dissects the complexities of collective memory, weaving archival radio debates from the 70s and 80s with traditional zajal poetry. It embodies the tension between historical voices and Moughanni’s own evolving sense of identity, shifting from personal expression to echoes of past generations.

Elsewhere, “Of Color And Insignificance” manipulates a French cassette titled Lebanon in Colour, distorting its romanticized qanun melodies into something eerie and unsettling—an abstraction of Moughanni’s anger at postcolonial contradictions.

The first track recorded for the album, “For A Moment, We Stopped To Listen,” captures the communal anxiety of wartime: neighbors rushing to their balconies at the sound of a revving car, bracing for the worst. Through an improvised tape recording, Moughanni allows himself a rare pause—not just from external violence, but from his own internal grief.

A haunting interlude repurposes explosion recordings from 1978, collapsing past and present into a single moment, while the album’s closing piece, “To Lose A Friend / A Separation From Habit,” confronts emotional suppression—the habitual detachment that allows people to function amid crisis. Recorded during yet another war, it resists the impulse to move forward too quickly, instead dwelling in the discomfort of grief and anger.

Merging ambient, noise, electronic, and experimental elements, A Separation From Habit is an evocative, cathartic work where distorted textures and fragile melodies mirror the turbulence of loss—unstructured, uneasy, and inescapable. It is a meditation on breaking free from ingrained responses to crisis, urging listeners to sit with difficult emotions, if only for a moment.