On / Off Bachar Mar-Khalifé

• 1 Zakrini 04:42
• 2 Insomnia 04:54
• 3 Chaffeh Chaffeh 04:34
• 4 On / Off 02:03
• 5 Lira 03:05
• 6 Je t'aime à la folie 02:48
• 7 L'amour à plusieurs 02:56
• 8 Ma Fi Chi 03:36
• 9 Prophète 05:46
• 10 Jnoun 04:31
• 11 Ya Hawa Beirut 04:59
• Total Runtime 43:54

Info for On / Off

Bachar wanted to record this fifth record, On/Off in his native Lebanon. More precisely in the main room of his family house, a stone house standing alone in the mountains north of Beirut. In the house, electricity goes on & off twice, a day. During the night, hostile and freezing, hyenas are heard; during the day, the birds whistle with serenity, and the light of day shines through the windows, each day slightly differently… This constant duality becomes a source of inspiration for Bachar, obsessed as he is by this rustic environment which exacerbates the senses.

On 'Chaffeh Chaffeh', Bachar Mar-Khalifé sculpts a unique original sound space. A throbbing dub track, infused with an R&B vibe.

Bachar Mar-Khalifé

Bachar Mar-Khalifé
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, on 13 February 1983, Bachar Khalife’s first encounter with stones was when his comrade Kifah, hiding in a tree, threw a well-sized rock that hit him in the head. That was his first encounter with stones.

In 1988 he was transferred to Algiers. The day after his arrival, he fell in the Chriaa mountains. They covered his injured head with a piece of bread. That day, all of them raised their two fingers up in solidarity.

A year later it was off to Paris, where he would be kept for the next 19 years. At the age of 11, after he had a fight with his older brother Rami, over “who’s gonna get the ball from behind the wall of the garden today?”, Bachar drew a white horse with wings and rode it to get the ball.

In 1998, he accompanied his father Marcel to the Justice Court in Lebanon. Upon entering the court, they were greeted with a standing ovation along with clapping, as though the audience was expecting to hear someone sing a song.

In September 2000, on the Champs-Elysees, wearing the black and white kaffiyeh won him a beating. The cops did not arrest any of the aggressors and asked Bachar if he could return the phone that he reportedly stole, which was actually his own phone. On the next day, all of them raised their two fingers up in solidarity.

Two years before that, the cops fined him 100 Francs for spitting on that same avenue (he was sick) and was summoned to a hearing by the police because he spit on that same avenue (he was sick).

In July 2006, during his summer vacation in Lebanon, Bachar spent an afternoon playing football with his cousin Kiril and a few barefoot kids at a school that hosted too many people for a summer vacation. All enjoyed it very much.

That summer, he left Beirut on the Mistral boat. The trip was very long.

Today, standing on his balcony, looking over to his neighbors’ balcony, he noticed them noticing him looking at their balcony. He continued to notice them pretend not to be looking at him. At this point, he, his neighbors and his neighbors’ neighbors were all aware of each other looking at one another but pretending not to be intruding on each other’s solitude.

At this moment of the day, he wished that all of them looked at each other’s white wings thrust and all together raised their two fingers up again.

This album contains no booklet.