Charif Megarbane

Over the past two decades, Megarbane has released over 100 albums under various monikers and recorded across Beirut, Nairobi, Paris, London and Lisbon – the various cities he’s called home. With a DIY music ethos, Charif Megarbane has crafted an inimitable style of instrumental music, a melting pot of global sounds that effortlessly glides between 1960s Italian library music, Middle Eastern psychedelia, afro-beat and hip-hop breaks. Megarbane refers to this as “Lebrary” music: a vision of and from Lebanon and the Mediterranean expressed through the kaleidoscopic approach of library music. Before releasing music under his own name, Megarbane had a number of other outlets for this spontaneity, notably through his own Hisstology imprint, and he has released music across a number of groups and monikers such as Cosmic Analog Ensemble (whose latest “Les Grandes Vacances” was released on Jakarta Records in January 2024), Tapeman No. 1, Trans Mara Express. Following the release of the critically-acclaimed Marzipan on Habibi Funk in July 2023, the first contemporary release by the label, as well as the limited release Hamra/Red in July 2024, Charif is set to release Hawalat on Habibi Funk in the Spring of 2025.