SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ
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I REMEMBER SYRIA Digital Reissue Charity Release SF009DI
Available Now...
Now is the time to purchase "I Remember Syria" for download. All proceeds will be donated to the Syrian Red Crescent, so please buy a copy or two, and tell people. Find it here at Boomkat (linked below) or on iTunes, Amazon, and anywhere else you purchase digital media. This edition comes with an expanded downloadable booklet.
The most important thing about this reissue is that all proceeds from the sale of this release will be donated to a charity that assists Syrians in need. And they are in need.
Syria doesn’t sound like it did on “I Remember Syria” anymore, and it doesn’t look like the photographs in the expanded booklet. As you may already know, Syria is suffering in the midst of unthinkable turmoil, attack and destruction. As a wide-scale humanitarian disaster continues to unfold, Syrians both within the country and in refugee camps beyond its borders are in need of immediate assistance.
“I Remember Syria” was assembled as a love letter to the country I grew to know as one of most civilized places on Earth. It contains recordings made and collected during my first travels to Syria between 1997 and 2000. Across the span of 14 years, I would travel there as frequently as possible. When initially released on Sublime Frequencies as a double-CD in 2004, the aim was to showcase and humanize a land and its people that had been politically and culturally exiled by the west for decades. Hopefully, these recordings can serve again as a testament to the beauty and unity of Syria, and the grace, hospitality and integrity of its people.
– Mark Gergis – March, 2013
“I Remember Syria” (SF009DI)
Sublime Frequencies is proud to present this digital reissue of I Remember Syria: an assemblage of field recordings, interviews, radio broadcasts and music, from one of the least-known quarters of the Arab world. Before the west associated Syria with its current crisis, it had politically and culturally isolated the country for decades – leaving little known of its contemporary peoples, or its rich heritage of art, music and culture.
Originally released as a 2-CD set in 2004, this one of a kind audio document was recorded and surgically assembled by Mark Gergis from recordings he made in Syria between 1997 and 2000. The results offer a multi-faceted glimpse into the country, as it was at the cusp of the 21st century.
Disc one features sounds from the ancient capital city of Damascus – including vivid street soundscapes, interviews, spontaneous live music, sounds captured inside the world-renowned Ummayad Mosque, and fragments of radio and television broadcasts, as well as exploring the mystery of a legendary underground city called “Kazib”.
Disc two takes us out to “Greater Syria”, capturing live musicians, political opinions of the day, radio excerpts and sketches, songs from cassette releases found around the country, and other audio anomalies. The closing track showcases the haunting sounds of wood against wood produced by the Norias – the giant irrigation waterwheels that have churned in the Orontes River, in the city of Hama, for centuries.
All proceeds from the sale of this release will be donated to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (IFRC) to support urgent humanitarian aid work during the ongoing crisis in Syria.
Purchase via Boomkat:
http://boomkat.com/downloads/704653-mark-gergis-i-remember-syria
Purchase via Emusic:
http://www.emusic.com/music-news/review/album/mark-gergis-i-remember-syria/
Purchase via Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/I-Remember-Syria/dp/B00CDALUMC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366659148&sr=8-2&keywords=i+remember+syria
Red Crescent Home page:
http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/where-we-work/middle-east-and-north-africa/syrian-arab-red-crescent/
SUBLIME
FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and
exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and
rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short
wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies,
and other forms of human and natural expression not documented
sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern
recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES
is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience
inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the
pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN
FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE,
BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M.,
TANGENT, and TOPIC.
