Vinyl - nabeel - نبيل - ghayoom - غيوم

After becoming a fixture of Virginia's DIY scene moving through slowcore, pop and college-rock projects, nabeel (نبيل) was born when frontman, Yasir Razak, wanted to find a way to bridge the gap between his dual identity as first-generation immigrant. Choosing to sing only in Arabic, with the song title’s translation sitting side-by-side with its English characters, his lyrics are short, potent explorations of Arabic poetry delivered in a strikingly Western sound.

For the project’s music videos and visuals, he excavated his family archives and home movies, starting a cut-and-paste collage of places, people and times he couldn't return to. It’s an obsession shared by many people of the Iraqi diaspora, forming an ever-expanding community around nabeel (نبيل) of people who are in search of alternative Arabic music which expresses their shared experience in ways language falls short of.