News

New Masaa album Terre Humaine out via XJazz! Music on January 15th, 2027 

Masaa met up with friends and fellows ÄTNA, Benji Asare, Viktoria Leléka and the amazing session choir to re-record the famous Maya Angelou/Ben Harper classic "I'll Rise"

Masaa
Rabih Lahoud - Vocals Marcus Rust - Trumpet Reentko Dirks - Guitar Demian Kappenstein - Drums

ÄTNA
Inéz - Vocals Demian Kappenstein - Drums

Benji Asare - Vocals

Viktoria Leléka - Vocals

Audio - Recording, Mixing, Mastering: Andreas Lammel One-Shot-Video: Beat Halberschmidt Reentko is playing strings by D´Addario This performance was recorded at Soundfabrik Berlin on May 30th, 2026

What people are looking for today may be less complicated than it seems superficial: to encounter each other. To really see yourself, to listen, to laugh together, to sing, to dance. In a world that is increasingly accelerating, in which one is at the same time apart, the four musicians of Masaa focus on something elemental: the human, the joy of living together.

Terre Humaine is the name of the new album of the quartet, which will be released on 15.01.2027. It is music about encounter(s) – and music that makes encounter possible.

Since the release of the last album Beit 2023, the workings of the four musicians have changed fundamentally: ideas have since emerged more and more together, an impulse becomes a counter-impulse, a movement from a sound, a single idea finds its form only in the interaction. Everyone brings their own voice, but nothing stands in isolation. Rabih Lahoud, Marcus Rust, Reentko Dirks and Demian Kappenstein are equally the starting point and designer of the music. And all four sing.

This created something new in the history of Masaa: The voices of the four musicians combine to form choirs, become their own instrument and carry the music in a new way. Because the choirs do not stop at Masaa with the four musicians. With the new repertoire, the band is opening up new paths – and increasingly to the audience. In “Gara Gara” a funky bass line opens, which is supported by a driving beat and later carried by the choirs of the four. In the groovy “Kom Ma Lele”, in the fast-paced “Hemma” or in the reggae-like “Quand le Temps”, the voices become a central part of the musical event.
And then people come to that.

More and more often, the concerts of Masaa create choirs from the audience. First individual voices, then more and more. The audience doesn't just listen, it's becoming part of the music. When the concert is already over, Masaa continues: Together with the people, the band leaves the concert hall and moves singing and acoustically into the foyer. There is sung, dancing, laughing. The line between stage and audience dissolves. Listeners become participants, a concert becomes a joint celebration. Perhaps that’s why Masaa is probably the smallest marching band in the world: four musicians who go – and take people with them.

Terre Humaine does not describe a geographical location and no cultural affiliation. The title describes a common ground: the human. Something that lies before all categories and arises beyond borders when people meet each other.

Also musically, Masaa opens up new ways on Terre Humaine. The four musicians move freely through sound, rhythm, language and improvisation. Famous things meet unexpected, composed on the moment, calm on movement. The decisive factor is not where a musical thought comes from, but what comes from this in the interaction.

The “Wolfslied”, a Swedish folk song, known from Astrid Lindgren’s Ronja Räubertochter, receives a new stanza: the text, which is translated into Arabic, tells of the reconciliation between man and wolf. The title track “Terre Humaine” recalls a French chanson in its bittersweet simplicity.

With “I’ll Rise” an English-language piece in the repertoire of the band is heard for the first time. The text is by the African-American lyricist and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. “You can kick me in the dust—and like dust I will rise”: a hymn of resistance, of the struggle against social injustice and hope. The quartet recorded this piece as a political statement in a video with artists from very different musical genres of electropop (ÄTNA) about soul and hip-hop (Benji Asare), the well-known Ukrainian singer and ESC participant Viktoria Leléka and a gigantic choir.

The pieces tell of different experiences and perspectives – of vulnerability and resistance, of reconciliation and cohesion, of the longing for closeness and the joy of living together.

Masaa played and sang all the pieces live in a room – in the well-familiar concert hall of the “Donkey” in Einbeck-Sülbeck near Göttingen. Four musicians who listen to each other, react, give space and shape the moment together. Perhaps that is exactly the core of this album: not only singing cohesion, but practicing it musically.

Terre Humaine is an album about the human. About encounter, movement and the power of voice. About the possibility of letting four votes become many. And about a community that doesn't stop when the last song is played.

Because in the end, Masaa walks out of the concert hall with the people. Singing. Dancing. Together.

Terre Humaine does not linger in this place. The album is also a music for the silent moments between the great encounters. And when the album accompanies everyday life out there, every usual movement, every daydream and every quiet minute becomes a part of the music, a relived memory.

Terre Humaine – human earth. A common ground on which we can meet.

Background:
The quartet Masaa has been delighting its audience in East for many years (from Tunisia to Azerbaijan to Turkey's Izmir) like West (from Spain to Germany, where the four musicians are native, to Britain). On their album Irade, the band celebrated the debut of Reentko Dirks, whose guitar skills have since added spectacular new sound facets to the group sound. The band was awarded the German Jazz Prize in the category best vocal album, and the Lebanese-German singer, poet and composer Rabih Lahoud, who is based in Monheim near Cologne, also received the WDR Jazz Prize.

In preparation for the new album, the quartet has decided to release Terre Humaine as a complete album until further notice only on CD and LP (each with download code) to set a sign against the devaluation of music by the streaming market. CD and LP are available in personal contact with the band on tour, in the record store and the mail order companies of the trust. Two of the three pre-decoupled singles will already be available for their respective release in the current streaming portals.

Instrumentation:
Rabih Lahoud – Vocals
Marcus Rust – Trumpet, flugelhorn, Marching Band Choir
Reentko Dirks – Doubleneck Guitar, Gymtoom, Marching Band Choir
Demian Kappenstein – Drums, Percussion, Marching Band Choir

Tour dates:
13.11.2026 Frankfurt Or / transVocale
15.11.2026 Herrenberg / Jazzin
03.12.2026 CH-Basel / bird’s eye // Basel
04.12.2026 Kehl / Passerelles
15.01.2027 Göppingen / Stimmklang Festival
17.01.2027 Karlsruhe / Tollhaus
21.01.2027 Dresden / Ton
22.01.2027 Einbeck / Donkey
23.01.2027 Bad Oldesloe / KUB
23.04.2027 Schwerin / Jazznacht
24.04.2027 Lauenau / Kesselhaus
27.04.2027 Gronau / Jazzfest
16.05.2027 Paderborn / Confluence Festival
13.11.2027 Weikersheim / TauberPhilharmonie
Further dates are in preparation

Further information: https://masaa-music.de/

Masaa
The new album: Terre Humaine
VÖ: 15.01.2027
Label: XJAZZ Music
Formats: CD, LP
Distribution CD, LP: The Orchard
Catalog: XJM27003CD/XJM27003LP
UPC CD: 885288369557
UPC LP: 885288401653
Label Code: 28353

Voice in Flow – Experiencing and Learning Flow in Singing "Flow"—we encounter this term increasingly often in everyday life; people strive for this blissful state that causes the sense of time and space to blur. But what exactly is the secret behind flow? How can it be achieved? And above all, how does the so-called flow cycle affect my work as a singer? This book answers all these questions by clearly explaining the latest scientific findings from flow research and linking them to the principle of "inner security." Flow is not a myth, but a process waiting to be discovered. *Voice in Flow* is the first book to explicitly address flow in the context of singing, providing readers with numerous tips and exercises to help them experience flow on stage. Previously unpublished notated vocal exercises round out the book's practical section.

The German-Lebanese musician, composer and educator Rabih Lahoud will take over a professorship in the field of artistic-pedagogical study programs with a focus on community music at the University of Music Würzburg from the winter semester 2025/2026.

Music is for Prof. Rabih Lahoud the language of understanding. Lahoud stands for artistic excellence and emotional depth and is one of the most distinguished voices of a new generation of music mediators. In Würzburg, Lahoud will act as the centre's artistic head.

The social relevance of community music is uncontroversial and has been increasing for several years. The Hochschule für Musik Würzburg is now focusing on this area at university level and thus closes a gap in the nationwide study offer.

"I am very happy to support this unique location in Germany as a professor."