10″ – Futura Resistenza

There are many precedents in music on the theme of lamentation, which has its roots in ancient funeral traditions and expressions of collective grief. These compositions, widespread in many cultures, have given voice to mourning and historical memory throughout the centuries. From Gregorian chant to contemporary works, musical lament has always been a powerful tool for addressing social and political trauma, creating sound spaces for reflection and testimony. In the case of this release by Futura Resistenza, which is the result of a collaboration between Laszlo Umbreit, Sirah Foighel Brutmann, Eitan Efrat and Ot Lemmens, the object of regret is a physical place: the Al Naqab desert in Palestine. The resulting musical composition blends traditional sounds from classical instruments such as the flute and cymbals with sophisticated electronic elements and mechanical noises. The result is an immersive and politically engaged sonic journey, starting with the first track, ‘Ensemble’, which stands out as raw, visionary, poignant and painful, composed of sound recordings from eleven 16mm film projectors, which play simultaneously and at intervals, creating a texture centred on a single note. The tracks ‘For Her’, ‘There’ and ‘No’ are instead recordings of live sessions played by Laszlo Umbreit and Eitan Efrat. The album also includes an extended text by Rose Higham-Stainton entitled Strategies for Survival, printed on a 12-page booklet. This work is part of the tradition of territorial laments, sonic expressions that tell of wounded places and suffering communities. As in the ‘threnoi’ of ancient Greece or in Middle Eastern funeral chants, ‘Là’ uses sound as a vehicle of memory and cultural resistance. The particular attention to sonic spatiality evokes the desert immensity, transforming listening into an almost physical experience of that contested geography. The sound design work is meticulous and layered: the mechanical sounds of the projectors merge with the delicate lines of the flute, creating a contrast that reflects the tension between industrialization and nature, between imposed modernity and indigenous tradition. The persistent use of the A note as the tonal centre of the work represents an emotional anchor, a fixed point around which the entire composition orbits. It should also be emphasised that the booklet that accompanies the album is not a simple textual complement, but an integral part of the work: Higham-Stainton’s contribution proposes a reflection parallel to the sound path, exploring modes of resistance and cultural persistence through the written word, in constant dialogue with the sound waves that permeate the entire project.

 

Laszlo Umbreit, Sirah Foighel Brutmann & Eitan Efrat – Là