Deena Abdelwahed announces new album, ‘Jbal Rrsas (جبل الرصاص)’, on InFiné Music

Deena Abdelwahed has announced a new album, ‘Jbal Rrsas’ (جبل الرصاص), on InFiné Music.

The Toulouse-based, Tunisian DJ and producer’s second LP is set for release on September 8th. Translated from the Arabic, جبل الرصاص, its title refers to the vast limestone rock formations of Djebel Ressas in the southeast of Tunis, Tunisia. The area of extreme natural beauty also features on the album’s artwork, created by Swiss multidisciplinary artist Niculin Barandun, which depicts a swirling mountain range.

‘Jbal Rrsas’ comes as the follow up to Abdelwahed’s 2018 debut record, ‘Khonnar’ (pronounced “Ronnar”) – a blend of bass, techno, and experimental music that was described as “shifting the epicenter of contemporary electronic music south.” She released the ‘Dhakar’ EP in 2020, and the ‘Free Radicals’ EP in collaboration with Basile3 in 2022.

Earlier this year, Abdelwahed released her original score for the Tunisian play, Flagranti, as an EP via French label, Shouka. The score was originally written to accompany Essia Jaïbi’s groundbreaking theatrical work of queer fiction, which confronts the oppression and aggression faced by LGBTQI+ people in Tunisia today. The EP’s first single, ‘Fête’, premiered on DJ Mag.

Abdelwahed also shared a collection of her favourite cuts for DJ Mag’s Selections feature, spanning Arabic rap and jazz, Egyptian mahraganat, futuristic club sounds, and kuduro.

The upcoming album was co-funded by Consortium Commissions, an initiative by the Brussels-based non-profit, Mophradat, which creates opportunities for artists from the Arab world through an inventive approach to funding, commissioning, and collaborating. The record was written, composed, produced, mixed, and performed by Abdelwahed herself, with the help and advice of Khalil Hentati (tracks arrangement) and Khyam Allami (tuning and musicology).

Abdelwahed has a string of summer festival appearances on the horizon, including Milan’s Terraforma (9th June) and Barcelona’s Sonar Festival (17th June), followed by her return to Glastonbury’s mythical Block9 at the end of the month (26th June). Block9 released their full line-up earlier this week, which will include Four Tet, Yung Singh, Batu, Marcel Dettman, Black Artist Database co-founder, Niks, and more.

‘Jbal Rrsas (جبل الرصاص)’ is available to pre-order now via Bandcamp. Find out more below.