Zahra Jewanjee & Simon Coates - Stateless
Review by Shritam Bhowmick
Stateless, the collaborative album by Zahra Jewanjee and Simon Coates, is a stunning display of genre-bending music that blends electronic, ambient, and classical elements. The album, released in 2021, contains 11 tracks that showcase the duo's exceptional musicianship and creativity.
From the opening track "Circles" to the closing track "Ashes," Stateless takes the listener on a journey through a soundscape that is both haunting and beautiful. The use of ethereal vocals, intricate piano melodies, and atmospheric electronic textures creates a sense of otherworldliness that is hard to resist.
One of the standout tracks on the album is "Desert Rose," which features Jewanjee's mesmerizing vocals and Coates' expertly crafted piano lines. The track is a perfect example of the duo's ability to create a cinematic experience with their music, evoking images of vast deserts and starry skies.
Another highlight of the album is "Echoes," a track that features a hauntingly beautiful melody played on a cello. The use of strings throughout the album adds a layer of depth and emotion to the already captivating soundscapes.
Table of Contents
Download
Filename: zahra-jewanjee-simon-coates-stateless.rar- MP3 size: 7.2 mb
- FLAC size: 35.2 mb
Tracks
| Track | Duration | Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Stateless | 41:13 |
Images
Catalog Numbers
Episode 40Labels
RadiusListen online
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- online luisteren
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Formats
- File
- MP3
- Stereo
- 320 kbps
Notes
- Part sound art exercise, part mix tape, and part travelogue, Stateless takes its name from one interpretation of the Arabic and Persian word bidoun. Used literally, bidoun means “without”; however, bidoun can also used to describe a population that is unrecognized by the country it inhabits and so is therefore stateless. It is estimated that the United Arab Emirates is home to around 100,000 bidoun.
- Made using found sounds including field recordings made in the UAE, Berlin, Thailand, Istanbul, and Laos, Stateless is a reflection on itinerancy and political migration. Interrupting the field recordings is a section that seems to consists of scrolling through the radio in the UAE. The sounds of the West come through in the advertisements, voices, news stories, and music, pointing to the changes taking place in the UAE with the influx of development. The juxtaposition of the radio scroll and the more specifically Arabic field recordings illuminates the unrecognized bidoun that inhabit the changing political and cultural landscape of the UAE.
