MNJM Assembles 19 Arab Artists on Debut VA Compilation 'EXCAVATIONS I'

Berlin-based independent label MNJM has brought together an ensemble of 19 artists from across the Arab world for its inaugural VA compilation, EXCAVATIONS I. Moving across techno, experimental, club and ambient music, with flourishes of shoegaze, the record gathers familiar label contributors alongside a wide roster of artists working across different sonic disciplines, with collaborations and solo productions forming an expansive portrait of the label’s musical interests.

Initiated by Syrian producer Abdulaziz Alhomsi, Syrian sound artist Milad Samara, along with Croatian visionary Kasja Borić, MNJM has developed into a platform for electronic music that resists the boundaries of conventional club programming. Operating as both a record label and events series, its work centres on artists exploring the space between dancefloor functionality and more exploratory sound practices, while bringing SWANA-rooted perspectives into conversations around contemporary electronic music.

Across EXCAVATIONS I, these ideas surface through a tracklist that brings together different approaches to history, identity and abstraction. Bint Mbareh’s ‘The Easiest Way To Carry A Shoe Is By Wearing It’ stands out for its deliberately matter-of-fact, almost absurdist title, suggesting an interest in the relationship between everyday objects, bodily experience and the ways meaning can be constructed through seemingly simple gestures. On the track, the Palestinian sound artist and researcher draws on Sufi rain-summoning songs, leaning into the meditative, melodic side of experimental music. Her voice is ethereal as ever, building into haunting, heart-melting choral stretches accompanied by a fretted lute, before twisting into glitchy loops, thrashing instruments and fractured melodies.

‘State of Stillness’ by Lebanese artist Jad Atoui, meanwhile, introduces a more introspective point of departure, placing the idea of stillness in a potentially charged relationship with movement. The track showcases Atoui’s improvisational approach and avant-garde electro-acoustic compositions, particularly within a compilation so closely connected to club culture.

Elsewhere, the compilation’s Arabic-language references and politically suggestive titles bring another layer to its wider framework. Muqata’a’s ‘Istiqsa’, meaning investigation, suggests a process of looking closely and questioning, echoing the compilation’s broader excavation metaphor. The Palestinian electronic godfather brings his trademark evocative, disruptive soundscapes, blending glitch, abstract tones and noise textures with sampled material and field recordings.

Alif Hilal and Basyma Saad contribute ‘Loai (after Al-Hallaj)’, drawing on the legacy of the celebrated Sufi mystic and poet Mansur Al-Hallaj, whose life and teachings remain central to discussions around mysticism, spiritual expression and religious authority. Rather than treating cultural memory as something fixed, the reference opens a dialogue between historical thought and contemporary artistic interpretation.

The more confrontational ‘Cursed Are The Arabs’ by A Homsi and Edwin Nasr brings questions of collective identity and political perception into the tracklist, while FREIVOGEL/SINCLAIRE’s ‘Acid Flutes’ points towards the compilation’s more overtly electronic vocabulary. Meanwhile, the presence of artists such as Yara Mekawei, Sandy Chamoun, TEDZI, Souci, Heatsick, Dauwd and DJ Saliva further expands the project’s range of creative voices and approaches.

As a debut compilation for MNJM, EXCAVATIONS I operates as a meeting point for different musical and cultural narratives rather than a neatly defined genre exercise. Its 19 contributions reflect the label’s interest in treating electronic music as an open-ended practice, one capable of holding dancefloor energy, experimentation, historical references and personal expression within the same space. In doing so, the compilation positions excavation not simply as an act of looking back, but as a way of bringing overlooked histories and emerging ideas into the same conversation, while simultaneously offering a reminder of the standout talent within the MENA’s experimental electronic scene.