Roger Fakhr - East of Any Place (LP)

Around 2 years ago, we released an album by Rogér Fakhr entitled “Fine Anyway” on Habibi Funk. It came about as a result of afternoons spent at Issam Hajali’s jewelry shop on Mar Elias Street in Beirut. When we first heard the songs of “Fine Anyway” we were blown away! The music was a mixture of folk with touches of other genres. Maybe one could also refer to it as “singer-songwriter,” since all of the songs were Rogér’s own compositions. Songs of unique beauty both musically and lyrically. At the same time, they gave us the feeling of them being somehow isolated capsules of time and space. Nothing really revealed where they could’ve been recorded and, not knowing it was Beirut, a first guess would have likely been Southern California, sometime in the 1970’s. The immersive effect of his compositions and voice are just incredible. When we put the album out, we knew we loved the songs and the music, but with its sound being slightly different and the lyrics sung in English, we were not s