ACL 2025 ~ The Top 20 Albums of the Year

This year’s top album was a revelation: one of the humblest records we’ve ever covered drew acclaim from our entire staff.  In a year of tumult, it comes as no surprise that we would be drawn to the quiet and

ACL 2025 ~ Top Ten Experimental

Some of the year’s most unique releases appear here, including the sounds of Middle Eastern street protests, traditional Crimean song, diamond on disputed mud and a seminal field recording series.  Some of these artists record in perfect freedom and peace;

Yara Asmar ~ everyone I love is sleeping and I love them so so much

Memories of conflict are very much on the mind of Yara Asmar, who splits her time between Beirut and upstate New York and tries to make sense of it all.  Or perhaps there is no making sense, only a box

Yara Asmar ~ Stuttering Music

By 2006, more than a decade and a half after the conclusion of the Lebanese Civil War, the city of Beirut seemed to be experiencing an era of cultural resurgence. The Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon had finally ended in