@noor.haddad

Beirut-born, Berlin-based; plays in both a traditional Arabic ensemble and a post-rock trio whose entire identity is an oud running into a Fender Twin. The oud is a Faruk Türünz, the Twin a '72 silverface he bought on a US tour. Treats the rig as a single instrument.

The Twin came first, bought for an electric guitar he no longer owns. The oud took its place when the ensemble project started in 2021. The pedalboard followed — RV-6 for the room, Big Sky for the moments the room isn't enough.

Born in Beirut in 1987, left during the 2006 war and finished school in Amman. Studied ethnomusicology in Paris, then drifted to Berlin in 2014 for a residency and never bought a return ticket. Lives in Neukolln above a Turkish bakery that opens at four. Teaches oud privately to a handful of students and takes session work when the trio isn't touring. Splits rent with a partner who works in textile conservation and tolerates the Twin at low volume.

First instrument was a buzuk his grandfather kept in a case lined with newspaper from 1975. Switched to oud at twelve under a teacher in Hamra who refused to use tablature on principle. Played in a wedding band through his twenties — three sets a night, mostly Fairuz covers, paid in cash and meze. The post-rock trio started as a joke in a Kreuzberg basement in 2018 and stopped being a joke after the first EP. The traditional ensemble came in 2021 when a cellist he'd known in Paris moved east; the Twin followed the oud into that room and hasn't left.