Wake Island’s Multifaceted Born to Leave Project is Set to Launch at Phi Centre on May 3
Montreal duo Wake Island are ready to share their triptych multimedia concept project Born to Leave with a launch at Phi Centre on May 3.
The project includes the premiere of a video game on the ground floor exhibition space; the launch of a brand new ambient album خُلق/ هُجر (Born to Leave – revisited) with a dolby atmos version in the Habitat Sonore listening room; and culminates May 3 with a live, audiovisual performance featuring Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart) joining Philippe Manasseh and Nadim Maghzal on stage to enact the new album in an immersive in-the-round configuration.
Based on the conceptual, lived, and emotional themes of the original 2021 album Born to Leave, Philippe and Nadim have mined the complex relationships they have with their homeland of Lebanon and their host country Canada to animate each of their new iterations. Informed by many perspectives on ‘belonging’ and grief: from the crushing economic collapse in Lebanon and unprecedented wave of exodus to the tensions embodied in emigration and diasporic creative life.
Their choose-your-own-adventure video game, created in collaboration with developers Kngfu and co-produced by Envision, casts participants in a narrative set in Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport as a flight arrives from Beirut. Players must navigate their entry into the country, facing confusion, discrimination, and all the anxieties inherent in crossing borders.
The sound design for the game was derived from deconstructions of songs from the original album, which were recomposed into ambient and electronic forms by the band in collaboration with Radwan—adding live instrumentation to create خُلق/ هُجر (Born to Leave – revisited). In Arabic the words loosely mean “to be born / to emigrate,” but they also harbour hidden meanings. The vinyl version will be available on-site at the show, while the whole album can also be experienced in full spatial audio glory, in Habitat Sonore.
On May 3, arranged in the center of the room at Phi, all of the spirits and themes in the game and the albums come together in a unique immersive audiovisual live performance. Featuring adapted visuals from the game in a multiscreen array played by VJ Giotto—Wake Island is joined by Radwan, as they improvise the new album on oud, buzuq, modular synths, samples, and loops in enveloping ambisonic glory.
Game exhibition: May 1-7, 2024
Habitat Sonore: May 1-7, 2024
Live Performance: May 3, 2024
https://phi.ca/en/events/wake-island-radwan-ghazi-moumneh/
Vinyl and digital are available for pre order: https://wakeislandmusic.bandcamp.com/album/born-to-leave-revisited