Sary Sehnaoui

Sary Gabriel Sehnaoui, known professionally as HEAR, is a Lebanese-Canadian film director, DJ, and electronic music producer based in Berlin.

Sehnaoui directed the 2009 short video The Basement, Beirut, which has been discussed in academic writing on post-war Lebanese youth culture. As a musician, he has recorded with Move D and San Proper, and founded the Berlin electronic music label Naissance Musik in 2016.

Early life and education

Sehnaoui was born in Beirut and studied fine arts in Canada, specialising in audiovisual production. and "Don't F*** With My Cat".

In 2009, Sehnaoui directed The Basement, Beirut, a short video commercial shown in the Viral Video Award programme at . The video is discussed in the edited volume Arab Youth: Social Mobilisation in Times of Risk, which describes a couple leaving The Basement nightclub, finding a devastated Beirut outside and returning downstairs to continue drinking and dancing, above the closing line "It's safer underground". The book treats it as an example of escapism and hedonism in post-war Lebanon.

In 2013, HEAR released the album Sonic Limbo on Archipel Musique and the Distant Voices EP with German producer Move D, also on Archipel Musique. Resident Advisor linked the EP's atmospheric sound to his work as a film director. His work with Move D was characterised by Resident Advisor through atmospheric and cinematic soundscapes,

As Dream Scoring

Images of a Myth with Hakim Murphy (2016, Naissance Musik)

As Quarter Tones

Silk Road Chronicles (Vol. 1) with Henrik Raabe (2024, Naissance Musik)