A lot is going on during Yasmine Hamdan’s third solo album. Despite all ten songs of I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكر drawing from the lyrics and music of Palestinian folklore, what is heard is avowedly non-traditional. Hamdan is sticking with the electronica she has been associated with since the late 1990s.
The title track exhibits an acid house pulse. “Seven vows سبع صنايع” begins as a smoky ballad but quickly incorporates ominous washes of sound and echoing, gun-shot percussion. “Shadia شادية”, the most linear track, has a Seventies film-theme vibe. “Mor مرّ التجنّي” evokes a desiccated, distracted form of trip hop.
Lyrically, in Arabic, the title track laments the increasing regularisation and ubiquity of the abhorrent: “Murder, is normal, Distortion, is normal… Looting, is normal, Manipulation, is normal, Intimidation, is normal… Despair, is normal,” intones Hamdan, who left Lebanon for Paris in 2005. As well as being a cri de cœur motivated by her reaction to current-day world affairs, in particular those on Lebanon’s doorstep, it feels that on the 20th anniversary of her departure from where she was born as if Yasmine Hamdan (ياسمين حمدان) is reviewing where she is and where she was when she arrived in France.
Reinforcing this impression, there are intimations – especially on the poppy, rave-edged “DAYA3 ضياع “ (the album is mixed by Nicholas Jaar, who has a lengthy track record in this area) – of her Lebanese duo Soapkills. I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكر, the belated follow-up to 2017’s Al Jamilat, also rewinds how she makes music. Marc Collin, best known from Nouvelle Vague, was integral to her first solo album, released in 2012. He was not a part of Al Jamilat. Now, he is back. His return fits with this retrospection.
Throughout the album, there is a tension between the Arabic inclinations of the songs and the electronica. Mostly, this adds drama but on odd occasions, such as “Mor مر التجن,” it doesn’t quite gel. Yasmine Hamdan will be playing live next year and, hopefully, this awkwardness will have been smoothed out by then.
