Hello, this project has been on hiatus for about 7 months, due to me doing too many other projects.

 

All info below relates to previous work with this project.....

 

 

 

 

So what is this? Basically since April 2015 me and a few other musicians have been meeting about once a week in Kreuzberg.

The name has changed now to "Open the borders ".

 

It used to be called "refugee choir and orchestra" but calling it "open the borders " gets to the point more. I believe if there were no border controls in the world, all the problems would be vastly reduced. The free movement of human beings is paramount to a better future for everyone.

 

Due to certain miscommunication I cannot get funding from Betterplace.  So now I will try and fund it by getting money directly from sponsors, with leaves out the medium of online crowdfunding. 

 

We generally rehearse every Monday at 18.30 to 20.00 in Sharehouse Kreuzberg, 

 

Anyone is welcome to join. All or most music will be here on my website so please come along and get involved. You dont have to know anything about music, you just have to love music and love people. It costs you nothing to be involved, except time, and I would happily pay people if I could get the funding.

 

At the moment we are currently working on "Eric Satie" gymnopodie no 1.

 

Also a piece we are composing called "Hijaz 17", based on the Hijaz scale and bars of 17-16 time (just for fun!) Here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLOG  15 December 2015

 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago we played at the Re:fugee:ca event, organised by Daniel, in front of a few hundred people.

It was ok, but some of the mics didnt work initially.

It was me, Shahin, Hannah, Zaher, and Far. came up and played a few songs.

Overall it was a great success and I want to put up some photographs a.s.a.p.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OLD BLOG:

 

We had the first rehearsal on Monday 13th April! There were 2 Syrians, and one Canadian. 

It was very positive and very interesting. One Syrian played the Ney, and the other played the guitar and sang.  We composed some music, mainly improvisatory. We also all agreed to do a version of "Yesterday" by the Beatles. The guy from Canada (Duncan) wrote some great lyrics based on all the cultures in the room (Irish, Syrian, Canadian), and these will be incorporated into the overall process as it unfolds. We also recorded and documented parts of the evening, and, with their permission, I will put some of this online very soon to give everyone a clearer idea of whats going on. Stay tuned!

 

18th April

This time no Syrians were there but Duncan and an American trumpet player, Matt, showed up. So we composed a piece for trumpet, with Duncan singing, me on guitar, and a Syrian (a new guy, his first time here) reciting an Arabic love poem. Duncan came up with some interesting lyrics. 

 

 

27th April

Today was me, guy from Syria and Duncan (Canada).

 

We set the famous poem that the Syrian had read to some strumming by me on the guitar. We had a lot of fun actually writing out the Arabic translation in English, and then putting the translation into phonetics so I could get an idea of how to pronounce it over the music.

 

The famous poem is about someone being sad and saying goodbye to their partner.

 

Here is the phonetic translation of the first line (or few lines):

 

Wok-alet      (She said)

Lema            (When)

Ara-tu           (I wanted)

Wada-aha    (to say goodbye)

Habibi           (my lover)

Ahacon         (really)

Anta               (you)

Bill-bay-ni     (going apart)

Fajay             (to break my heart)

 

Duncan sang a little at the end about the Georgia Strait in Canada….in some effort to wrap up the entire piece of music.

 

 

 

11 Mai 

Just Duncan. Wrote an interesting song, with lyrics. This time it was based on one his Aunt's awesome paintings. Gotta get that link to her painting, and her name...

 

 

18 Mai

Just Bashar was there. Once again we visited the poem and this time I taught Bashar a few chords. Hopefully he will be able to play the poem soon while strumming on the guitar.

 

 

26 Mai

Me, guy from Syria, Daniel (totally sound guy who does stuff for Betterplace and has been very involved and supportive from the beginning…he is the mind behind Re)  and a new person from Nigeria: Nelson, a rapper.

 

It was a lot of fun, and once again really interesting.

First, I just showed the Syrian how to notate rhythms in Western music. We then put words of his poem to crotchets and quavers, like this:

 

Later Nelson arrived, and he told us how in Nigeria there are many languages, one of which is Yoruba. He then rapped in both English and some Yoruba. 

The syrian caught it it with his camera phone. 

 

After this, me Nelson and Daniel had a very lengthy conversation about words like refugee, migrant, expat, foreigner…even the term "slave" came up. All this refers to the ambiguity and stigmatization surrounding the consistent terms we use to categorize a person or groups of people. Daniel asked a great question: When does someone stop becoming a refugee? 

 

 

1st Mai 2015

 

Someone from Slovakia, Maria, who I have worked with a lot before, came as well.

So we had four nationalities in one room: Canadian, Irish, Slovakian, and Nigerian.

The syrian guy wasn't there so when we improvised, I took his place reading the Arabic poem.

We needed a unifying theme to sing about, so we agreed we would refer to nature in our countries. So I sang a bit about Erigal.  Each person sang a bit about the theme and we had a lot of fun.

 

We will develop and expand on these ideas as the time goes on.

 

 

June the 8th:

Lot's happened today, combining Syrian/Slovakian/Irish/Canadian stuff. Here are 3 excerpts now on you tube (thanks to Magda for recording):

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJGIpeg_rI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXAoVWBoZa4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNWEkaXzhFU

 

 

June 15th 2015:

you can here some of this here, a lot happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYiGnn-CtEo

... today we had my good friend from Syria, Nelson from Nigeria, and two new people: Charlotte from Romania, and Fahrad from Iran.

Fahrad plays guitar and sings really well…awesome.

 

So: Syrian guy recites his poem normally with me on guitar, then he does a section with a notated rhythm..

at about  3.00  I'm trying to transition on my guitar over to  Fahrad, on his guitar….. he sings a song in Iranian (I think this language is Iranian...  UPDATE ..Persian!) , related to love and loss, which is what the poem form earlier is about, with Nelson doing some interesting backing vocals.  

mostly my guitar is going through the whole thing, except for Fahrad when he is doing his song…he adds some cool percussion on the guitar at times

About 5 minutes into the music Charlotte starts singing a 4 note melody, (as heard on the guitar), and then this leads to Nelson rapping…

 

SO: Lots of work to be done! The sections need to join up properly..more structure is needed... 

 

 

June 22nd 2015

Me, Duncan, Syrian guy, and Maria. I taught the guy from Syria some more guitar, and then worked on some interesting harmonies with Maria and Duncan, taking material previously worked on. 

 

 

June 29th 2015

Just me and guy from Syria. I taught him a lot of guitar, and we also worked a lot on a piece of music I am writing for everyone.

 

 

July 6th 2015

ok:

Me, Syrian guy, Fahrad, Nelson.

We plotted out a structure for the upcoming Sense Camp on the 26th Juli.

Here it is so far:

1.Fahrad does a song, in Persian, alone singing with guitar

2. I recite Syrian guys poem while I do his poem

3. Maria does a song

4. Me doing drum n'bass on guitar while Nelson raps.

5. We combine everything we have done so far into one structure.

The beginning has been notated.

 

 

July 13th 2015

 

July 20th 2015

Normal rehearsal

 

 

July 26th 2015

Did the sense camp workshop, it was a great success. 

About 20 people were there, we did it outside in a nice garden beside the building.

Lot's of people joined in. I just improvised a plan as we went along and it worked.

Eventually we had a piece of music!

 

 

August 3rd 2015

Some new people came: Zahir, a violin player from Syria

Hannah, a clarinet player from Germany

I will update this blog soon!

 

 

19 August

Zahir on violin, Farhad, Duncan, Hannah (clarinet).

We did:

strange piece based on the cycle of fifths

the new piece with lyrics in 4 different languages...arabic, english, persian, german

talked about the Spanish piece to do. 

 

 

21 September

I restarted the refugee choir and orchestra, our next goal being the Re:fugee:ca  event on Nov 29th. 

here is the facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/506911946132267/

Just Duncan was there. 

 

 

28th September 2015

This week was Hannah on clarinet, one iranian (guitar), one syrian (guitar), zahir (violin) and Ute singing.

We did some improv and are writing two songs, one mentioned before: the song in 4 different languages, and also another with simple 

but effective lyrics. For the werse: "no more walls, all people, all the same, all people, should be free" ...and for the chorus "no more war, no more walls..."

 

 

12th October 

Today was: 

Shahin from Iran, and a friend of his coming for the first time also, Benjamin, from Iran as well. 

We rehearsed the 3 songs for the Re:fugee:ca event for November 29th 2015.

These songs are : 1."Spanish song"

the new song, "all people should be free", and the other (in four different languages!)

also, Benjamin and Shahin sang an Iranian song in Persian 

 

Here is the transcription ((in English script)) to the lyrics to the song "all people should be free" :

 

"Hame mardom baham brabarand. Hame mardom bayad azad basham"........"Na di ya jang na"

 

So above are the Persian words for "All people, all the same, all people, should be free"......"No more war"

 

 

 

19th October 

Guy from Syria, and Zahir.  We worked on the three songs. It was great with violin and guitar at the same time. 

 

 

26th October

Me, Benjamin and Shahin, did 5 songs: The three from last time, and also, 2 popular songs that Shahin knows with Persian lyrics...one called

"Blue room" and another called "Take my hand"

all this will be performed on Noc 29th at the Re:fugee:ca event. I brought a tambourine for Benjamin, and also gave Shahin a guitar I had been donated.

 

2nd Nov.

Below is a picture.

Me, Bashir, and Zahir. We did the three songs. Bashir is getting better and better on guitar !