Éclat: Part 95

Protests in Iran against the current political regime have been ongoing for over a month now. Led by women, and catalysed by the police murder of Mahsa Amini, the protesters have been putting themselves at risk of brutal retaliation by Iranian security forces and police. Voices both from inside and outside Iran have been asking those outside of Iran to amplify Iranian voices, and to shed light on what's happening there.

Read more about what's been happening in Iran on The Guardian here.

A few weeks ago Éclat producer and friend Anna Sharifi posted a beautiful cover of a song, Baraye which has become a real symbol of the political movement. Have a listen below, and read Anna's story of the track.

 

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A post shared by Anna Sharifi (@annasharifi_uon)

"The original artist Shervin Hajipour is an Iranian pop star, I think he was very famous even before this, and he wrote a song based on tweets from people.

People were tweeting why they were protesting, they said, well, these protests are for the rights of Afghan street children in Iran, we protest for the right to dance in the streets, we protest because we want to be able to kiss on the streets without being afraid. Out of 30 or 40 tweets he created lyrics for this song. Each sentence starts with "for..." or "because of..." so many many many reasons, and only at the very very end he says this is for woman, for life, for freedom... so it's only at the very end that we discover that this is a song for the protests, for THESE protests going on right now.

So he posted this on Instagram, and then he was imprisoned, one or two days later by the government. I think that was already widespread, and then people shared it even wider. I think he was forced to take it down, but of course it was too late because it had already been up on the internet, and poeple had versions o fit and were able to share it. And that was the moment when I decided to record it when he was in prison and they tried to silence him, I think many people thought, okay let's make his voice even louder. Now he's out of prison again, there was too much pressure on him, and it gained momentum shortly after the protests, you hear it at all demonstrations for Iran, those outside of Iran, on social media... It's become the hymn, the song of these protests."

Today we are incredibly lucky to be working with the audio of Anna's beautiful cover.

Download the stems from WeTransfer Here.

Today's challenge: Use part or all of the vocal of this track, plus any other sounds, synths, or samples that you like, to create a new version of Baraye of ± 2 mins long. Try to keep at least some of the lyrics un-chopped so the original meaning can still be understood.

Upload your track to this Google Drive by 8:30pm Berlin time, and then rejoin us on the Zoom call for our listening session at 9pm.

 

A translation of the lyrics follows:

"For/Because of" or “Baraye” lyrics by Shervin Hajipour in english
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/baraye.html-3
Tempo: 118 bpm
Chords: Em / Bm / Am / C D (and repeat...)

For dancing in the streets
For the fear when kissing
For my sister, your sister, our sisters
For changing the rotten brains
...
For this heaven being forced on you
For the imprisoned intellectuals
For the discriminated Afghan children
For each and every one of all of these "for"s
...
For all the pills for nerves and insomnia
For man, homeland and prosperity
For the girls wishing they were boys (17)
For women, life, freedom
For freedom
For freedom
For freedom

 

For tips on working with vocals in your productions, check out the tutorials below.