# audio
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Voice of Resistance (2018) صوت المقاومة
01 Language of silence
لغة الصّمت
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02 A rose in the battlefield
وردة في المعركة
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03 Daughter of the desert
إبنة الصّحراء
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04 Released
إنعتاق
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05 Deadly music
موسيقاتلة
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06 This is my voice
هذا صوتي
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07 I don't care
لا أبالي
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08 The last cord
الوتر الأخير
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09 Rim
ريم
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10 My dream road of roses
أحلم بورد الطّريق
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11 Ascending to the sun
الصّعود إلى الشمس
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12 My songs will sound from the squares
غنائي يصدح في المساحات
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13 Unable
صعب علي
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14 Loving you
أحبّك
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15 Maryam
مريم
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Label: KKV / Digital release: 20/04/2018
More links and information will be provided here soon.
With incredible determination and defiance, and despite her illness and the paralysis in her vocal cords, Rim worked relentlessly on her new album and managed to complete all the recordings in January 2018.
Rim said that she wanted this album to be powerful and defiant, neither sad nor melancholic. Musically, she wanted something radically new. A creative act of resistance in the face of injustice and occupation in all their forms.
This is Rim's powerful statement celebrating her and the Palestinian people's struggle against all foes and woes, always with a sign of victory and a smile of hope. Rest in Power.
Voice of Resistance: A concept album
The idea behind the album was born in May 2015, just after Rim was told by doctors that her vocal cords were partially paralyzed and that she would not be able to sing anymore. But nobody tells Rim what she can or cannot do. Rim met in Oslo with her Norwegian producer Erik Hillestad (KKV record label) and Tunisian sound cutter "SC MoCha" from the electronic activist collective Checkpoint 303. Together they came up with a plan for an unprecedented audio experiment; Checkpoint 303 would remix data from Rim's medical files (PET and X-ray images) by converting them into sounds to which Rim would then recite (and whenever possible sing) her own poems describing her resistance and her struggle. The outstanding jazz pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, who collaborated with Rim on her last album, immediately accepted to be part of the project and the adventure began.
The album
The 15 songs on this album are an explosive mix of iron-willed and moving spoken word, experimental sound art, complex beats and powerful provocative and heart-warming piano melodies. In the final recordings completed in Oslo in January 2018, Rim actually managed to sing on some of the songs despite her weak vocal cords. Rim's lyrics on the album range from being defiant and bold to being heartbreaking and endlessly deep. However, her courage, humanity and incredible positivity transpire from every word she pronounces.
The recording sessions
Rim Banna's vocals were recorded by Erik Hillestad in the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music (ESNCM) studio in Ramallah in 2017 and at Kulturkirken Jakob in Oslo in January 2018. Bugge Wesseltoft's piano was recorded by Martin Abrahamsen in Oslo in January 2018. Checkpoint 303's sonifications, guitar recordings and electronic compositions were performed between Tunis and Montreal in 2017 and early 2018.
Album credits
Vocals: Rim Banna (All lyrics by Rim except one poem by Zahi Wahbe)
Programming, data sonification and electric guitar: Checkpoint 303
Piano: Bugge Wesseltoft
Photos: Eirik Stordrange / Cover design: Geir Henriksen
The album was produced by Checkpoint 303 and Erik Hillestad
Mastering by Bjorn Engelmann at Cuttingroom studios in Stockholm, Sweden.
The album was supported by The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Conversion of medical scans and images to sound
An important novelty of the musical compositions of this album lies in the transformation of Rim's medical scans from two-dimensional images to audible sound elements. This process known as "data sonification" was programmed by Checkpoint 303 and applied to medical data chosen by Rim. The data was recorded as part of the medical diagnostic procedures that Rim underwent using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computer Tomography scans (X-ray measurements). The scans used included cross-sectional images of Rim's chest, heart, brain and throat. Checkpoint 303 converted these images into sound either by direct sonification of image pixel values into an audible spectrum, or by converting the images into 2D midi files. Additionally, two portrait images of Rim were also transformed to sound using the same procedure. Finally, the ambient layer in the last song of the album was constructed using the actual sound of the image-guided radiation system recorded on video during one of Rim's radiotherapy sessions in a hospital in Berlin in 2016.
Youtube and Soundcloud Links
My songs will sound from the squares (Soundcloud)
Loving you (Soundcloud)
My songs will sound from the squares (Youtube)
Loving you (Youtube)
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