Roy Souaid is a Lebanese physician and songwriter who has been building the John Lebanon project across late nights split between Boston and Beirut for the better part of a decade. What started as solitary demos has grown into a full ensemble: Matt Deluccia on bass and vocals, Gaby Carvajal-Poisson on vocals, Karl Deek on lead guitar, Khalid Razick on trombone, Marc Chehwane on keyboards, and Stefanos Athinaios on percussion. Kite Without a String is their definitive album statement, due June 5th, 2026, and it was written across the distance between those two cities. The press kit describes a deliberate sonic arc: the first half captures the inertia and tension of a world in muted stupor, the second half turns inward toward the small grounding moments that bring clarity. That structure holds up across the listening experience.
The title track is one of the most profound dream pop tracks I’ve listened to in a while. The metaphor of a kite without a string is perfect because we often think of ourselves as being tied down by something, but it’s really an illusion or a flimsy facade; you can reach out and cut the rope anytime. You belong to no one, and nothing belongs to you. We are free reflections of the universe. The dreamy music is tastefully atmospheric to give you space to take in this beautiful message. A kite is even more of a genius metaphor when you think a bit more about it, because the wind carries us around, for we are not birds. Ultimately, life is just a ride, so learn to experience it.
Switching to the Arabic side, now, “Maksour” is a ballad that tells the story of moving from Beirut to Boston between broken dreams and new horizons, which ultimately arrives at a hopeful conclusion and a new outlook or maybe a new excitement for the opportunities moving opened up, though that homesick feeling remains present throughout and is reflected in the shyly melancholic yet dreamy chords with the bubbly rhythm.
The last song worth highlighting is “Self Made World” because, from a dynamics perspective, it’s the most delicate song on the album, and it builds up like a smooth linear gradient from beginning to end, and the way the vocals interact with the rhythmic devices’ accents here makes this uniquely catchy, even though it doesn’t follow a traditional pop structure at all. So that’s definitely a feat that can only be achieved through real talent and great musical taste; it’s something that AI can never replicate, let’s put it that way.
For a project rooted in the experience of living between two worlds, Kite Without a String earns its title in more ways than one. Souaid is not anchored to a single genre, a single language, or a single geography, and the album is richer for all of it. This is a record with something genuine to say about distance, identity, and the strange freedom of not quite belonging anywhere, and it says it beautifully.
