RAMALLAH, April 21, 2018 (WAFA) – A new posthumous album by late Palestinian singer Rim Banna is set to be released this week through digital music platforms, according to her record label.

The album, titled “Voice of Resistance,” consists of 15 new songs that Banna managed to complete recording by January 2018 despite her illness and weak vocal cords.

According to the record label, Banna said that she wanted this album to be powerful and defiant, neither sad nor melancholic, a creative act of resistance in the face of injustice and occupation in all their forms, a powerful statement celebrating her and her people’s struggle against all foes and woes, always with a sign of victory and a smile of hope.

Banna began working on the album in May 2015 right after she was told by doctors that she wouldn’t be able to sing anymore. However, she met in Oslo with Norwegian producer Erik Hillestad and Tunisian sound cutter “SC MoCha” from the electronic activist collective Checkpoint 303 and together they came up with a plan for an unprecedented audio experiment where Checkpoint 303 would remix data from Banna’s medical files (PET and X-ray images) by converting them into sounds either by direct sonification of image pixel values into an audible spectrum, or by converting the images into 2D midi files, to which she would then recite her own poems describing her resistance and her struggle.

Jazz pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, who collaborated with Banna on her last album, immediately accepted to be part of the project and the adventure began.

The 15 songs on this album are an explosive mix of iron-willed and moving spoken word, experimental sound art, complex beats and powerful provocative and heart-warming piano melodies. Banna’s lyrics on the album range from being defiant and bold to being heartbreaking and endlessly deep. However, her courage, humanity and incredible positivity transpire from every word she pronounces.

The album is scheduled for release by the KKV record label across all digital music platforms on April 20th (including iTunes, Spotify etc.). The album release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is planned for June 2018, while the CDs should be available in Palestine starting April 25 and in Jordan and Lebanon in May.

Banna passed away in Nazareth, her hometown, on March 24, almost 10 years after she was diagnosed with cancer.

K.T./M.K.