Rabih Beaini’s Morphine Records has released a compilation raising funds for charities responding to last week’s explosions in Beirut.
The digital-only 12-track release, titled The Sacred Rage, features new music from Beaini himself, as well as the likes of Donato Dozzy, Monolake, Rashad Becker, Natalie Beridze, The Bug, and Neel. You can watch a video for Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s contribution to the compilation, ‘Qalouli (They Told Me)’, above.
"The entire proceeds of this compilation will be channeled to real ground work in Beirut, that will provide food, medicine, structural supplies like doors and windows, and repairing shelters that have been seriously damaged by the explosion," a note on Morphine’s Bandcamp page says.
The release of the compilation follows on from an open call shared by Beaini and Morphine last Friday (August 7) during Bandcamp’s last fee-waive day, from which proceeds of label sales went to local NGOs working on the ground in Beirut. Morphine namechecks organisations such as Food Heritage Foundation, Matbakh el Balad and the Lebanese Red Cross as ones to support.
The series of explosions inside a warehouse at the port of Beirut on August 4 killed at least 220 people and injured thousands more. Much of the area around the port was also destroyed, with the biggest explosion causing serious damage across the Lebanese capital. The disaster was caused by an unknown ignition of 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in the warehouse for six years.
Lebanese authorities declared a state of emergency over the capital for two weeks following the disaster. The city’s economy was already struggling with 35% unemployment and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic before the explosions, and it has now been estimated that around 250,000 people are homeless in the aftermath of the disaster.
For other ways to support those affected by the Beirut disaster, find a community-aided list of resources here.
The Sacred Rage is out now via Morphine, and can be purchased here.
