Snakeskin - Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal (Lb) & Otoliths in Flux - Manos Saklas (Gr)

SNAKESKIN is a Beirut-based duo of visionary electronic dream pop, shapeshifting above ambient and industrial undercurrents. Their music is moody, unsettling, luminous – the culmination of a decade of collaboration and friendship between producer/musician Fadi Tabbal and singer-songwriter Julia Sabra from indie trio Postcards.

On Snakeskin’s sophomore album “They Kept Our Photographs,” out on October 10, 2024 via London’s Mais Um records, the duo build their critically-acclaimed 2022 debut, dialing up the noise while keeping the celestial quality of their soundscapes intact. Lyrically, Sabra mines new depths to deliver her most vivid work yet, turning the violence in their region into visceral poetry, exploring ever darker and deeper currents. Musically, Snakeskin branches into new directions - adding excursions into hyperpop and electronica to the duo's industrial-drone-ambient palette.

The duo’s self-titled debut was released on October 14, 2022, as part of the Corrosion Series –– a collaborative effort by Portland-based label Beacon Sound and Beirut-based label Ruptured. Sabra and Tabbal began working on the record in the aftermath of the August 2020 port explosion, composing their first track 'Roots' for the Ruptured-curated series The Drone Sessions in the fall of 2020.

Live video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd0HQtd6o3o


Otoliths in Flux presents 'Performing the Archive'; A listening session featuring electronic pieces composed in Greece, from the fall of Military Junta and onwards.

Otoliths in Flux curator and sound artist Manos Saklas juxtaposes, mixes and resynthesizes recordings spanning the earliest known electronic experimentations that took place in the country, and the playful documentations of Contemporary Music Research Center (KSYME-CMRC), as well as various sonic offerings from the vibrant Athenian counter-culture scenes of the 80's, and the sci-fi pop mutations of the 90s, along with more recent, present-day contributions.

Manos Saklas (b. 1998, Athens) is an artist working across visual art, radio productions and electro-acoustic music. Rooted in his studies at the Xenakis CMRC, his practice engages with cultural artifacts and methodologies drawn from fields as diverse as conceptual art, greek mythology, modernist composition, and warfare technologies—underscoring their sociopolitical resonances.

Since 2020, Saklas has been the curator and producer of Otoliths in Flux, a monthly show on Stegi Radio, exploring emerging territories in sonic art through artist talks, discussions, and thematic radio pieces.

https://strumandiodine.com/article/the-final-transcript-manos-saklas-otoliths-in-flux/