ULTRAS BASSAM HALAKA CAIRO CONTEMPORARY MUSIC DAYS 2014
Khaled Dagher E. Cello & Bassam Halaka Live Electronics
KLANGFAHRTBEN BASSAM HALAKA CAIRO CONTEMPORARY MUSIC DAYS 2014
Serif el Razzaz Bass Clarinet & Bassam Halaka Live Electronics
The work starts with Bassem Youssef’s voice, an Egyptian surgeon and broadcaster, saying
“Those dead young men were not just football fans; they were standing as men in the field and out of it.Their guilt was saying the word of truth, whilst many others surrendered early. Righteous men who kept their word until their death”.Following it, an original cheering sound from a previous football match which says: “When I stop cheering, I would definitely be dead”. In the back ground, there is a recording of part of the piece “Ultras” as a playback with a deformation “Verfremdung ” technique accompanied with Obstinate sound from the cello playing the same rhythm of the previously heard cheering.This piece reflects the panic, fear, escape, chaos and agony which happened when hundreds of thugs brutally attacked peaceful football fans killing 74 of them and injuring hundreds with no ambulance vehicles near by to give any help, even the closer ones ran away from the area leaving the young men alone to face death and bleed to death.