As I stumble to navigate through the busy traffic and local customs, ‘Which part/side of the road am I supposed to walk on?’, I ask Ibrahim Owais, founder of Recordat and one-part of Radio Alhara, the communal radio station from Palestine. ‘There are no rules,’ he laughs, and we walk and weave on further until Gouraud turns into Armenia Street. As soon as we make a turn leaving the bustling Armenia street lined with loud bars, into the Geitawi residential neighborhood, there’s a darkness I’m not used to (Beirut has gone off-grid since the power plant failed to procure oil, private back-up generators and solar panels make up for the essentials), and I’m feeling the comfort of being accompanied by my travel companions, the Recordat tour crew. Owais has brought with him Elvin Brandhi a frequenter of the Beirut underground scene, 3Phaz from Cairo, Iranian photographer and radio DJ Niloofar Asghary, and soon to join the traveling band is Berlin based experimental sound artist and dj Sara Persico originally from Naples. We are headed to Riwaq Beirut where Owais is music selector for the night.