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SIERRA LEONE'S REFUGEE ALL STARS:
FOLLOWING AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILM, ANTI- RECORDS TO RELEASE ALBUM LIVING LIKE A REFUGEE TRACING GROUP'S INCREDIBLE JOURNEY, SEPT 26
FROM A REFUGEE CAMP IN REMOTE AFRICA, WRITING SONGS FOR THE WORLD TO HEAR
WEST AFRICAN GROOVES, REGGAE RHYTHMS AND HARDCORE R&B TESTIFY TO TRANSCENDENT POWER OF MUSIC
"As harrowing as these personal tales may be, the music buoying them is uplifting. The cliché bears repeating: music heals and creates community."
-Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Refugee All Stars |
On September 26, Anti- Records will release Living Like A Refugee by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars. The album follows the film The Refugee All-Stars - one of the most acclaimed documentaries of the past year - which traces the incredible journey of a group of musicians who fled their native Sierra Leone in West Africa during that country's brutal ten year civil war, eventually journeying back to be reunited with family and friends, and realize their dream of recording in a proper studio.
Recorded over a three year period, from August 2002 to October 2005, the songs on the album serve as bookends to the absorbing story told in the film. After fleeing Sierra Leone, the members of the RAS came together in the Sembayounya Refugee Camp deep in the remote countryside of neighboring Guinea. They made their earliest recordings there, some of which are included on this album. Imagine the scene: by the light of an oil lamp, the RAS provide soul-searing harmonies accompanied by impossibly worn acoustic guitars and makeshift percussion on songs that address suffering and hope in equal measure. Elsewhere on the album this spirit is amplified, literally and figuratively, on tracks recorded at Island Studio in Freetown, Sierra Leone, after the members of the RAS returned to their homeland.
Lyrically, the RAS' songs decry the insanity of war, the corruption that surrounds them, and the living conditions they endure, all in poetic, at times wry, fashion ("When two elephants are fighting/The grass them a suffer"). As the RAS combine elements of West African music, reggae, classic R&B and hip-hop, the results are earthy, emotionally charged, and indomitable.
The six members of Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars are diverse in age and character. From Reuben M. Koroma the sage, 42-year old songwriter and guiding light of the group, to Black Nature, an orphaned teenage rapper. Yet they have a common bond in the loss and displacement caused by Sierra Leone's civil war, and a shared belief in the transportive power of music.
Earlier this year the RAS fulfilled a dream by playing their first-ever U.S. show at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, TX. While there the RAS also performed at a local soup kitchen, and led an impromptu street performance on Austin's main drag, Sixth Street, which many attendees remember as this year's quintessential SXSW moment. More recently the RAS have played many of the summer's most prestigious festivals including Bonnaroo, Summer Stage in NYC's Central Park, and the Montreal Jazz Festival.
The Refugee All-Stars a documentary film by Zach Niles and Banker White has earned several awards, including the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the AFI Festival in 2005, and the Audience Award at this year's Miami Film Festival. For more information on the film, including a schedule of upcoming screenings, go to:
www.refugeeallstars.org.
www.rosebudus.com/refugeeallstars
www.shorefire.com
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