SARAB's new album 'Mit Warde – Cent Roses' pays tribute to victims of wars in Syria and Gaza

French-Syrian quintet SARAB (Arabic for "mirage") has dedicated its new album 'Mit Warde – Cent Roses' to global war victims "from Gaza to Syria." According to a report by France 24's Arts24 program on October 12, the band is currently touring in support of the new record.

Formed in France by musicians of Syrian descent, the band has been described as performing "poetic punk rock" — guitar-driven heavy power chords colliding with the sonic textures of classical Arab music, paired with lyrics of pronounced social consciousness. Against the backdrop of Syria's ongoing conflict and the continuing war in Gaza — two conflagrations that have repeatedly torn apart civilian life at opposite ends of the Middle East — the album places the two wars side by side, using music to refuse the abstraction of wartime suffering or its marginalization by mainstream cultural products.

The album's title, 'Mit Warde – Cent Roses', itself implies a response to suffering and a commemoration of life's tenacity. The moniker "SARAB" alludes both to Syrian desert landscapes and to the way home becomes illusory amid war and exile. Rooted in classical Arab tradition and carried by the energy of punk rock, SARAB transforms the memory of war into an artistic echo that can be heard and transmitted.

According to France 24, SARAB is currently touring to promote 'Mit Warde – Cent Roses'. In the same program, France 24 also interviewed Tom McFarland, the creative force behind British neo-soul outfit Jungle, discussing the tour for the band's fifth album, 'Sunshine'.