PJ Harvey has shared a new single in collaboration with Egyptian artist Ramy Essam. “The Camp,” which comes with a video comprising images by photojournalist Giles Duley, documents “the lives of displaced children in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon,” the Guardian reports. Hear the song and see the Rick Holbrook-edited video below. John Parrish produced and mixed the track, as well playing drums and guitar. Net profits from the song’s release Friday will go to Beyond Association in the Bekaa Valley, a national Lebanese non-Governmental Organisation. See the artwork (by Semaan Khawam, Giles Duley, and Fabrica) below.
In a press release, Duley said:
It is hard to comprehend the scale of the crisis in Lebanon, a country of 4 million now hosting over 1 million Syrian refugees. The infrastructure of the country is pushed to its limit, and nowhere is that situation more desperate than in the Bekaa Valley. However, there are some amazing organisations doing incredible, effective, and selfless work on the ground there, and of all the NGOs I have documented, none have impressed me more than Beyond. To visit their schools and witness their programs is to see hope - and that is something we have to support.
Ramy Essam says the song was informed by his experiences during Egypt’s recent revolution. “I dealt with fights, beating, torture and the loss of friends,” he says in the press release. Of PJ Harvey, he adds, “She is a humble person and true artist that I only could dream to even meet – and now I’m singing with her for this important cause, for humanity. It was an honour to work with PJ Harvey, and I found it so inspiring. It gave me a chance to live my dream for a while.”
PJ Harvey is performing at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival. Get tickets to her Saturday performance here. Revisit our review of her 2016 record The Hope Six Demolition Project, as well as our Sunday Review of 1992’s Dry.
via Jazz Monroe
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