A ground-breaking concept album based on the real-life experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK is being created by some of the country’s top musicians and the Red Cross.
The Long Road album will see artists including spoken word poet Scroobius Pip, singer-songwriter Kindness and the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars pair up with a person who has been forced to flee their home and seek safety in the UK to tell their story.
Brit Award winner Ethan Johns, who has worked with the Kings of Leon, Laura Marling and The Vaccines, will produce the album.
“This is a very special opportunity to create an album with a narrative that helps more people understand the realities of being a refugee and the journeys people go through,” said Johns. “Music is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, and these are important stories to be told.”
Kindness’s Adam Bainbridge, whose grandmother, Amina Desai, was South Africa’s longest serving female Indian political prisoner for her defiance of the apartheid regime, approached the Red Cross when he heard about the project.
Adam is working closely with Ayman Hirh, a refugee who fled Syria when the fighting broke out in 2012.
He said: “I’ve seen with my own eyes that anyone’s life can be turned upside down overnight; that expressing an opinion can be enough to make life unliveable in the place you call home, and eventually force you to leave it. So when I was told about the project, I had to be involved. Getting to know Ayman has been fantastic and I’m looking forward to telling his story in the studio.”
The album’s announcement kicks off this year’s Refugee Week (15- 21 June), a UK-wide programme of arts, cultural and educational events and activities that celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and promotes better understanding of why people seek safety.
The Red Cross is also inviting the public to share pictures of the people, places and things that they feel celebrate the contribution of refugees in the UK using the #TheLongRoadEP on social media platforms including: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
For more information about the project and Refugee Week go to: www.redcross.org.uk/refugeeweek
