#julmud

Feat. Maya Al Khaldi, Alabaster DePlume, Julmud, Ussama Abu Ali

Recorded in Palestine from Jan 12th until Jan 26th 2024 At Radio Atheer Studio (with Julmud) – Ramallah At Wonder Cabinet and Radio Alhara Studio – Bethlehem Wandering around the West Banks with a ZOOM H5 Featuring Recordings from the Sound Archive of the Popular Art Center – Ramallah

Additional Recording, Arranged and Composed in Roma between January and July 2025 Mixed by Filippo Brancadoro Produced by Filippo Brancadoro and Mai Mai Mai Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci aka Neel at Enisslab

The sounds scattered throughout this album clearly draw from Julmud’s Ramallah, Palestine home base, and lend it a distinct, compelling atmosphere. The way the samples of voices, drums, and strings are treated — slowing, pulling them apart, looping and unraveling, and using static and texture — gives the songs a dreamlike feel. This is taken to extremes in “Ishi Hawa’i,” which feels like flipping a Palestinian radio dial, encountering mysterious bits of songs: a woman sings, then fizzing static interjects another voice, as delicate strings come and go. 

There’s a cinematic, neon-lit nighttime vibe to much of this, from the darkly twirling electronics that open the album in “Basmala” to the gorgeous album highlight “Haras El Jabal” and its vocal and string layers. “Toshkol Asi” is like devotional music heard from a nearby building, and the underwater jazz club sound of “Kalma” and its slowed-down vocals feel as if your ears were stuffed with opium. 

While most of the songs use voices as sounds rather than for the words, a few include rap-style vocals, like “Falnukmel” with noisy rhythmic blasts, and “Harti,” which features a snarling, bratty attitude after its singsong first half. Alas, I don’t know the lyrics or the language to glean its meaning. 

Julmud has previously produced for artists like Muqata’a (who also runs the Bilna’es label releasing this album), Haykal, and others, and he’s accumulated an impressive array of techniques, on full display here. The breadth of styles and sounds here, incorporated into distinct, memorable songs, provides a window into a fascinating musical dream world. It also promises much more to come, happily.