From her first albums with her band Soap Kills to guest appearances in films such as Jim Jarmusch’s ingenious vampire romance, ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’, and her own solo work, Yasmine Hamdan (ياسمين حمدان) has pursued a career since the turn of the millennium that has been as steep as it has been self-determined. The Lebanese singer–songwriter and actress refuses to accept a duality between so-called Western and Arabic music, instead discovering congruencies and ambivalences that need to be merged. With albums such as ‘Ya Nass’ (2013) and ‘Al Jamílat’ (2017), Hamdan developed an unmistakable stylistic signature that lies somewhere between Arabic scales, art pop, trip-hop, and the poetry of a world-class songwriter during the 2010s. This is music with a catchy intensity that is understood globally but that still sounds completely unique. The humanitarian tragedies of the Middle East, the manifold cultural differences, and also the artistic depth and dignity of the people in this region of our planet so steeped in history are expressed in the artist’s sound in a way that is both mystical and natural. After many years of silence around Yasmine Hamdan, she is now back in September with her third soloalbum "I Remember I Forget." Her first new singles, ‘Shmaali’ and ‘Hon’, already give us an idea of what is in store here: sensitive Arabic pop with magical production values.