Kazdoura’s “Hmool El Safar حمول السفر” is built in the shape of a taalila, the call-and-response folk style sung across villages on the banks of the Euphrates. Written by Mosab Al Nomairy, the verses are carried by Syrian singer Leen Hamo, whose delivery holds close to the form’s cadence. The lyrics speak of falcons circling the river, shawls lost to the wind, and the burden of leaving home. Around her voice, John Abou Chacra layers electric guitar and synths, joined by Tom Nixon on additional synth and Kareem El-tyeb on riq, giving the taalila a contemporary frame while keeping its imagery intact. The track is accompanied by a video filmed in Cairo by director Khaled Khaled, where the sense of travel and dislocation becomes a visual motif.

The duo’s story is inseparable from displacement and diaspora. Hamo, who left Syria during the war, and Chacra, who came through the upheaval of Lebanon, met at a Toronto fundraiser following the 2020 Beirut port explosion. That encounter became the spark for Kazdoura, a project that holds Levantine Arabic music at its core while testing its reach across instrumentation and setting.

“Hmool El Safar” is part of Ghoyoum, their debut album. Recorded between Canada and Egypt, the record weaves maqam-based melodies with electric textures, percussion, and saxophone improvisations. Ghoyoum treats heritage—the taalila, dabke rhythms, and other Levantine references—as living forms, repositioned through psychedelic guitar tones and jazz inflections. Its tracks move between village-rooted imagery and a cosmopolitan lens shaped by exile and survival.

You can listen to and get your copy of the album HERE