Album Notes

Following the wildly popular and widely praised Dreaming the Diaspora, Oriental/Occidental is the second album of Georges Lammam's trilogy exploring refuge, migration, immigration and resettlement.

Oriental/Occidental matures the innocent emotionality of Dreaming the Diaspora. Rather than a melancholic remembrance, an ardent denial of refugeeism, or a hapless resignation to fate, Oriental/Occidental is a quest to find a place in the liminal landscape between two distinct worlds - the familiar, now nostalgic world of his memories and the possibilities of the future.

Recognizing that this journey is not unique to Palestinians but, indeed, is and has been the journey of all transnational and diasporic people, Oriental/Occidental reveals the desire to find a place to call home. The track titles name places and peoples that quintessentially espouse the notion of transit - a metaphor supported in the album artwork as well.