“And emerging slowly behind the hills, large dark phalanxes appeared to be coming. The dead of the war “.
A story note from YOVEL
“In this place, where for over 10 years all we have left is ingenuity –
how to fit in less space,
how to get paid for our work,
how to get unemployment benefit,
how to warm up in winters,
how to cool off in the summer,
how to continue to be people, collective and with solidarity, amongst the percentages of their announcements.
In this country which baptized saviors into realists and Nazis into celebrities.
In this country, so small for its large, daily, systematic bestiality.
In this country – bleakness.
Here, on October 7th “there was a great silence”.
“Do you remember, really, we felt warmth in the crowd as we walked flooding the roads. Our hands were touching, our voices were embracing, in the songs”.
Tassos Livaditis – EXCERPT: AGREEMENT NO.1 (1957) – Yovel: To arms
In this country, on Wednesday, October 7th, hundreds of thousands of people, of all kinds, gathered around a building of the judiciary system and demanded justice.
Who gathered? How many unemployed men and women? How many underpaid?
How many bunked off from work, “sick” and “recovering” – pupils and students – but also older, with fear shared between the boss and the pandemic.
The dead of their war.
The proletarians.
How crazy, how staggering, to see it, to live it –
“The whole crowd shook and began to move; a forest of raised fists.”
With a request.
Peace, Peace
“So, where’s our Peace?
A thousand times we died for this.
We won the wars. Τhey won the peace.
So, where’s our peace?
A world alive & fair & free
from this disease
It was our peace we were looking for on Wednesday.
We will seek our peace tomorrow as well. But they always win in peace.
They could not stand even 50 seconds of our celebration. They could not stand our peace for even 50 seconds.
They made sure to remind us of our role in their peace. Persecuted, suffocating, trampled, wet from the “auras” (anti-riot water cannon vehicles) and panting from tear gas.
The “majestic” demonstration, the democratic walls, the sea of people again became a lightning delinquent behavior. Enemy – people. Not even 50 seconds.
But something was missing. There was no fear.
Fear perched on the other side of the barrel this time. We are immortal. And now we have those seconds – all ours.
“And we all sang together and we all hoped together and we all fell together.”
And we were not trampled – and we were not panicked – and we were not afraid.
Because people are waiting for us in every corner.
Under these circumstances, on October 2nd, we released our new album “Forthcoming Humanity“. That’s why we wrote it. We wrote it about this world.
Because our flags are still being born: Dimitra Zorzou, Abuzid Ebarak, Mary Vavagianni-Mavri. So many and many more.
We wanted to create an album – a tribute to today’s people – to those who dare to fight.
An album that “sews” our speech with lyrics from the album so fitting, so natural, so real. Because the “old stories” we tell are stubborn, universal – present.
Because we write music for our lives.
Because we are too young to have fun and too old to be afraid.
This is why.
Still, waiting for that nuclear eclipse? We are knee-deep in the post – Apocalypse
Let us hurry comrades. The old world is about to fall on us.
PS1: Thank you for the warm comments. Thank you for your support and solidarity.
The fact that we are a handful of people responsible for everything. We look forward to the time for a Live show with safety.
It will be a celebration – and it will last much longer than a few seconds.
PS2: Unity
A real revolution took place in the music community these days, with the Unity initiative a few days ago – on the occasion of the Nazi trial.
And if once hip-hop monopolized, now metal is there, raising the flag of antifascism – and at the same time, rediscovering all these elements that once made it subversive, massive and dangerous.
“No politica” was buried deep in piles of rubbish (for now), there along with the “eccentric” black metal bands that once had no problem propagating new Holocausts and carrying Celtic crosses and Nazi symbols in the spotlight.
Good riddance, along with the rest of the Nazis.
These days so many steps forward were taken, so fast. Many who did not take sides did – and many who took are now hiding”.
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