Out December 1st to sync in with Independence Day for West Papuans
Sorong Samarai by Airileke Ingram is the first release on the politically motivated record label, Rize of the Morning Star. Co-written with exiled West Papuan Independence leader Benny Wenda, this powerful song of unity and resistance launches on December 1, Independence Day for West Papua, to heighten awareness of an ongoing tragedy of division and oppression just north of Australia.
Woven with electrifying percussion and reggae beats, Sorong Samarai [S2S] calls for “merdeka”, Freedom for West Papua, with an urgency too critical for the world to ignore. Although foreign journalism is banned in West Papua the Rize of the Morning Star team with acclaimed film clip Director and musician Carlo Santone [Blue King Brown/ Nattali Rize/One Rebel Creative] went into West Papua under cover to capture spectacular vision of a land rich in culture and natural beauty under the brutal occupation of the Indonesian military.
“We wanted to positively present the beauty of West Papua and PNG and the strength of its culture and people so the wider community connects emotionally to the situation and begins to take a stronger interest,” says Airileke, the Melbourne-based Melanesian artist who made an ARIA-nominated splash with his Weapon of Choice album in 2012.
The chorus chant — “Sorong Samarai, one people, one soul, one destiny” — is taken from Benny Wenda’s famous address to the United Nations 20 years ago. In 2013, he visited Airileke in Melbourne to set the unassailable claim to self-determination to music of the most arresting kind.
S2S features Twin Tribe on vocals, along with musicians and singers from all over West Papua and Papua New Guinea, in a mighty act of solidarity. Fierce log drumming of the Manus Islands sits beside hauntingly beautiful Kwakumba flutes from the PNG highlands, Tifa drums of West Papua and chants from surrounding islands such as Biak and Siasi.
The Rize of the Morning Star label was co-founded in 2012 by Airileke [pronounced Irie-leck-ee] and West Papuan musician and activist Ronny Kareni.
In early 2017 Airileke will bring together rising stars spanning the nations of West Papua/ PNG to present Rebel Musik: urgent, political, in-your-face musik from one of the harshest urban environments on the planet.
The performers hail from Port Moresby’s urban music scene and traditional dancers from the highlands of PNG, along with Australian and West Papuan artists from Airileke’s vast catalogue of collaborators, including members of Grrilla Step, Twin Tribe, Paluai Sook Sook, Drum Drum and Rize of the Morning Star.
The show will present a new flip on log drumming of the Manus islands; heavy Krump meets traditional Sing Sing; soundscapes that take you deep into the jungle and back. The strength of the Kundu / Tifa (drum) takes an integral place in a show embodying Papuan identity.
Tour dates are yet to be announced.