Laura Masotto feat. Roger Goula – Refugees

The new single “Refugees” by Laura Masotto feat. Roger Goula, taken from the upcoming album WE (11.06), is inspired and dedicated to the continuing tragedy which is experienced daily by migrants in the Mediterranean. The video was made in collaboration with the Spanish NGO Open Arms which is involved in rescuing migrants who depart from the coasts of North Africa and travel to Europe. The images used in the video were shot by the operators of Open Arms. For Laura Masotto (who has long been close to the NGO) it was natural to think of using her music and these images to shine a light on the drama of these migrations.

“I hope this allows us to look with awareness and empathy at the agony that these images and stories represent.” Laura Masotto.

In the beginning of 2020 Laura Masotto was in Spain for an artistic residency at the Center of Contemporary Art “Fabra I Coats” in Barcelona where she was starting the writing process for the album WE. While Laura was a volunteer from Open Arms, the crew got in touch and sent a video from the boat where they were listening to her music. It was also proposed that Laura to perform on the boat but then the pandemic started and she was forced to return to Italy and the idea was put on hold.

For Laura, making an album is analogous to “taking a picture” of a specific historical time, when the pandemic came she had the feeling that the virus was covering all news and people were forgetting other events like the migrant’s tragedy which was happening everyday. Her thoughts went to the refugees and she decided to write a piece about it, which was written in collaboration and as an act of sharing. Roger Goula, the spanish composer (living in London) was the first name that came to her mind as he’s very sensitive to this theme.
When the track was finalized, while watching some footage from the NGO, Laura thought about using her music to help the images to reach a bigger audience, the music could have the power of sensitizing the audience. After sharing the idea with Open Arms, they provided the clips now seen on the “Refugees” feat Roger Goula official video.

“When Laura contacted me in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic to collaborate on the Refugees single I knew that it would be a significant project, refocusing on an ongoing emergency too often overlooked as the norm. And in fact when I received Laura’s early sketches of the main theme for the piece I felt that sense of fragility but at the same time poignant energy that hugely inspired my musical contribution. The sense of rush of the fast violin arpeggios with yet strong harmonic changes made my imagination fly quickly and react musically in response to it straight away. Through a very organic collaboration with Laura, the music developed to deeply reflect the drama happening every day in the Mediterranean Sea with the hope that the language of music could touch our feelings and encourage our actions.“ Roger Goula

Open Arms: https://www.openarms.es/en/who-are-we#
Support/Donate: https://www.openarms.es/en/donate

Listen the song & watch the video: