An eclectic group of multicultural musicians have contributed a digital download album in support of the One Day Without Us campaign. One Day Without Us calls for a national day of action on February 20th 2017 in solidarity with migrants and refugees who live, work and study in the UK. The campaign is widely supported by a wide range of organisations including the Migrants Rights Network, Hope Not Hate, Migrants Organise and War On Want.
The digital album has drawn highly regarded folk artists such as Lau, Julie Murphy, Inge Thompson, Sarah McQuaid, Ange Hardy and Taith Trio together with Welsh performance poet Patrick Jones in his musical collaboration Black Triangle and award-winning composer accordionist Martin Green’s new project Flit. Alongside these, a range of diverse independent acts have also contributed tracks including The Islington Refugee Choir with a live recording of a song from their performance with the World Harmony Orchestra which is an orchestra made up of musicians from around the world.
Singer songwriter Rachel Taylor-Beales is the curator of the compilation and has been part of One Day Without Us from its inception. She became involved when journalist and author Matthew Carr put a call to action on his Facebook profile reacting to the rise of anti-migrant hate crime that followed the EU referendum and the increasingly xenophobic language emanating from mainstream politicians and the national press. Rachel, an Anglo/Australian living between the two countries has first-hand experience of some of the emotions and issues of resettling in new communities: “I wanted to use music as part of my own engagement in the campaign. It made sense to gather tracks from like-minded musicians as a collective response to the current issues surrounding migration and xenophobia. Music transcends borders. I wanted to involve a wide range of artists and styles. I’m thrilled that we have music and songs from artists of many different nationalities and genres, ranging from Romanian indie rock band Electric Tuxedo, to Anglo-Italian jazz singer Edana Minghella and from musicians who are English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, American, Finnish and more. As well as a fund raising project that would further awareness of the campaign I wanted to curate this collection to be a cohesive artistic response to the troubling times of today.” She describes the album as “a unique journey through pain, anger, loss, love, hope and the elusive answers to the big questions of ‘can we make tomorrow better than today – for everyone?’ The music, poetry and songs explore themes of travel and migration as well as personal and cultural identity. Some lyrics have been written in response to the horrific situations of refugees, other lyrics celebrate unity and diversity of humanity. Our collective voice is one of a shared desire for justice, human rights, freedom and equality. Our common humanity is our bond. Our art responds to the times we live in.”
Martin Green has contributed Laws Of Motion penned by Karine Polwart, a song from his latest collaborative project Flit. “Flit is a project inspired by people’s stories of moving round the world. Of all the things we discovered talking to people the single most obvious point to us at the end was; all animals have always moved around, and humans are no different.”
One Day Without Us digital album is released on December 18th, UN International Day for Migrants. The downloads will only be available for a limited time period until the end of February 2017 after the One Day Without Us National Day of Action On Feb, 20th, 2017. All proceeds from this compilation will go directly towards marketing costs funding the One Day Without Us Campaign and any money left over is being donated to charities working with migrants and refugees in the UK.
One Day Without Us Digital Download Album Track listing:
1. Laws Of Motion by Flit
2. Ghosts by Lau
3. Driftwood (Disconnect) by Black Triangle
4. Cycle by Inge Thomson
5. By The Tides by Ange Hardy and Lukas Drinkwater
6. Stone’s Throw by Rachel Taylor-Beales
7. The Fall by Julie Murphy
8. The Silver Lining by Sarah McQuaid
9. Orpolasten Polska – Gyrru’r Byd Ymlaen – Polska by Taith Trio
10.Imajon by Emilio Merone and Ileana Di Camillo
11. Stormy Blues by Edana Mighella
12.Circus by Electric Tuxedo
13. The Fury and The Sound by Andrew Howie
14. Battleship by Shane Beales
15. Last To Know by Laurence Made Me Cry
16. Folk Like You by Morgan Phillips
17. Calzone Urgente by Stefano Giaccone,
18. Reconnect by Lobelia
19. Scratch The Sky by Sir Silence And The Hush.
20. I Thought Only Foreigners Knew That by Steve Lawson
21. Islington Refugee Choir performing with World Harmony Orchestra
One Day Without Us digital album is available to download from https://onedaywithoutus.bandcamp.com
For further information about One Day Without Us please visit www.1daywithoutus.org