Ghosts on the rooftops

While you're digging deep for Japan & NZ, spare a thought - & a little cash - too for Sohrab. The hugely gifted sort-of ambienteer (whose A Hidden Place featured in LMYE's 2010 Festive 50 & weighed, of course, in naming Touch our pioneering label of the year) urgently needs representation for an asylum appeal.

His eerie fund-raiser, Shouting at Dictators (mastered by the great BJ Nilsen), is yours for £4. Laced with a lonely, disembodied/disenfranchised rage - but also, as often with Sohrab, a thrilling, pulsing beauty - the piece is made all the more plaintive by the thought of it as a soundtrack to his prospective deportation & 'homecoming'...

Background: "As you may know, Sohrab managed to leave Iran late last year for Germany, where he appealed for political asylum having been interned in Brandenburg. This appeal has failed and he is trying to raise funds to appeal against this latest ruling.

If he fails, it is probable that Sohrab will be flown back to Iran and arrested at Tehran Airport... Europe is reassessing its policy to 'immigrants' on a daily basis, partly because of the rise of the political right, but also because of the influx of refugees from the 'arab spring'. The vast majority are being unceremoniously shipped back to their point of origin...

This release is a fund-raiser to help pay for a lawyer to help with his appeal against the ruling. 100% of Artist and Label money from this release will be donated directly to the appeal fund.

The protest was recorded in Tehran in the autumn of 2009. On June 12, 2009 the Iranian presidential elections were held, and the results were strongly contested by the population. For the first time after the Islamic Revolution, Iranians expressed their dissent by organizing huge demonstrations against the regime. But the protest was not limited to demonstrations in public spaces; every night at 10 o'clock, citizens gathered on rooftops to continue their protests, chanting "Allah u Akbar" ("Allah is great"). At times, these chants would be interrupted by other, more indignant, chants of "Mag bar diktator" ("Death to the dictator"). During these protests, the dark Tehran nights were haunted by the ghost-like shadows and their eerie voices. Dreams, memories, emotions, and hopes roam around like ghosts on the rooftops of Teheran."

Sohrab - Shouting at Dictators / Amookhtan Baraye Zistan / No one really knows / A Childhood Dream / Le Cercle Rouge / Live in Tehran / Sun Blind (Sohrab ashtray between us mix) / A Hidden Place (Spotify)

Sohrab - Hantwerpen (for Habibe)

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.