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“Nature divides living beings into arriving and departing. The starters are turned towards the shadows, the arrivals towards the light". – Victor Hugo, Les Miserables Les Arrivants is an ensemble made up of Amichai Ben Shalev, Abdul-Wahab Kayyali and Hamin Honari, three musicians who settled in Montreal during the COVID-19 pandemic, between summer 2019 and summer 2020. It is in this unprecedented context that they met and adapted to their new adopted city as well as to an environment marked by closures, restrictions and uncertainties. The repertoire developed by Les Arrivants therefore reflects their experience of adaptation which has colored their artistic and social life in a lasting way. It is imbued with the traditional styles that the instrumentalists have mastered during their career: Argentine tango, classical Arabic music, traditional Persian rhythms. This repertoire also reflects the musical possibilities that emerge from the cultural ferment specific to a cosmopolitan city like Montreal. In other words, Les Arrivants has created an introspective sound experience that reflects the social life and vision of newcomers to Montreal, while conveying complex emotions associated with migration and travel. Their music traces the highs and lows of relocation, nostalgia for the places and people they left behind, and the search for new goals. This music expresses the joy of seeing friendly and familiar faces again during a time of great uncertainty, but also the anger and turmoil at the injustices and inequalities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.