Over the past couple of years, Mel7em (a.k.a Melhem) has established himself as a strong name within the scene due to his ethnic and ethereal sounds, something that has led to his biggest live set to date; a stunning performance from Tannourine Forest in Lebanon for Cafe De Anatolia. As Mel7em explains, he got stuck in Lebanon in March 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions, and experienced a lot of hardships alongside the country’s residents. Filmed in a stunning location, this live set is his way of translating his feelings into a special musical journey, that is filled with some of the best ethnic electronic music we’ve heard to date.
“I came to Lebanon during the month of March 2020. And I got stuck here because of the Covid travel restriction and went through a lot of hardships including the traumatizing Beirut blast and Covid and other personal issues. I have also worked on a personal humanitarian initiative where I saw a lot of people loss misery and suppressed emotions, I also lost a very dear person to my heart. For that, I’ve decided to translate all these emotions and feelings into a special musical journey to describe how I feel. I went to the Divine peaks of Lebanon, the tannourine forest, to record this special life set where I want to display god’s beautiful frames of this blessed land. I start the set with My new track ‘half a life’ which will be released soon on My new label. This track summarizes the true meaning of life, friendship and love and its beautiful words are written by our most respected Lebanese writer of all time ‘Gebran Khalil Gebran’, then moving throughout the set I showcase different sounds from two dear cultures to My heart, the Lebanese and the Turkish, giving a fresh upbeat to nostalgic forgotten gems. I sampled few vocals from legendary artists like Fairouz, Dhafer Youssef, and few more. I end the set with beautiful colors of the magical sunset in tannourine with another unreleased track of mine ‘Ana la Habibi ‘featuring vocals from Fairouz. I am honored to share this live set with all of you via Cafe De Anatolia and I hope you’ll enjoy it. Thank you for your love and support.”
Based in Istanbul, Mel7em (a.k.a Melhem) kicked off his career back in 2018, and has displayed immense promise ever since. Trusted by labels such as Outta Limits, Bercana, Family Name, Art Vibes, and now massive tastemaker Cafe De Anatolia, the rising producer and DJ is regularly charting on Beatport and is currently among the top 200 artists in the progressive house genre. He is also currently working on his very own label CutaRug, which aims to bring cultural awareness and support humanitarian projects around the world.
