MASAA – these are four musicians who praise the evening when people come together and meet each other, exchange intensively about the day – this is the meaning of the Lebanese band name. And they do it in a kind of deepest musical conviction of closeness, curiosity and togetherness. The intensity the ensemble creates in their music is so palpable and all-encompassing that their touch makes you believe again that music can move the world. Unfazed and on the highest musical level MASAA creates songs that show how complex and at the same time close our togetherness is. In 2021, the band’s former album IRADE was awarded the German Jazz Prize in the category „Album Vocal of the Year“.

The new album BEIT (in German: Haus, Heim), released at the end of April 2023, manifested the musical depth of the band, its singular sound language and the creative will of all participants. The title track alone feels like a breathtaking roller coaster ride through emotions and subtle musical changes. Songs with tempo and drive create clever contrasts to slow pieces whose intensity results from determined reduction.

If you like, you can put MASAA in a row with border crossers like Dhafer Youssef and Rabih Abou-Khalil. The songs of their new album seem even more detailed, the interaction of the musicians is even more nuanced. In this way, MASAA impressively brings together essences of musical aesthetics from East and West and creates from them a highly intimate and at the same time powerful music that leaves genre and other boundaries behind.