KEYNA WILKINS + JALAL MAHAMEDE - Set Me Free
A Powerful Night of Music, Voice and Art
Written by: Kerri Ellis - Sense Music Media | 1 November 2021
Born out of harsh conditions, comes beautiful evocative poetry and art with a deep vision of humanity and compassion.
On this night, November 17th, the album launch night, KEYNA WILKINS launches her latest music collaboration – a work of art that will reach into all corners of your heart and soul.
Set Me Free is an album collaboration between 9-year imprisoned refugee poet-artist Jalal Mahamede and Australian Art Music Award finalist Keyna Wilkins, working via zoom from his prison cell.
It is a musical setting of 13 of his poems around themes of justice and freedom. Jalal has spent 6 years on Nauru and 7 months on Christmas Island; he is currently held in a Brisbane detention centre. He was just 26-years-old when he was first assigned to a detention centre.
Doctors Without Borders described conditions in Nauru refugee camps as "beyond desperate", UNHCR described it as "some of the worst conditions seen".
JALAL MAHAMEDE
Jalal is a refugee who has committed no crimes but has been imprisoned by the Australian government for arriving by boat. If you think a few months of lockdown is hard, imagine 9 years, at times in horrific conditions.
Out of this immense pain has come beautiful evocative poetry and art with a deep vision of humanity and compassion. His poems are soulful, brought to life by a refugee who has committed no crime, but he remains in limbo, with no time frame, end date or guarantee of release.
KEYNA WILKINS
Keyna Wilkins – not just an amazing musician and composer, but also an innovator. Throughout these years, she has brought to life extraordinary music and art through her talent to collaborate with other musicians and performers. She has written over 60 pieces of music that Werripang has published and has performed all over the world. She was one of three finalists for the Australian Art Music Awards for Individual Excellence in 2021 and 2018.
KEYNA WILKINS Website
She has taken Jalal’s story, and set it to music. A book of his illustrated poetry will soon be published by Tangerine Books.
As Keyna became more and more involved in this project, the more excited she became. She started telling a few musician friends about the project, and found lots of musicians wanted to be involved, which became quite easy as there were so many musicians suddenly free due to the lockdown. It started with one or two collaborators, then expanded to a total of nineteen of her favourite improvising musicians. She asked them to email her recordings of them improvising a few minutes of music set to any of Jalal’s poems. All of them provided wonderful music and, like her, were very inspired by his work, many going above and beyond what she originally asked, like Susie Bishop, who recorded an absolutely beautiful and poignant violin and vocal duet.
Jalal and Keyna decided to call the album “Set Me Free” after one of his first poems. It consists of 13 tracks; each track is one of his spoken or whispered poems set to music. The music is stylistically broad, from art music, to jazz, to folk and Middle Eastern. Keyna says she was very influenced by the music Jalal sent her from Ahvaz and tried to mimic certain note-bending techniques on flute and Phrygian modal tonalities.
Artwork by Jalal Mahamede
She adds, ‘his spoken poetry is the unifying force.” About a third of the music is Keyna’s flute or piano improvisations and the rest of improvised tracks emailed in from some of Australia’s best improvising musicians.
It was sound engineered by the highly skilled Matt Stewart from A Sharp Studios. The musicians featured on the album are Elsen Price, Gumaroy Newman, Rhyan Clapham (AKA Dobby), Carl St Jacques, Will Gilbert, Shane Carpini, Jenny Eriksson, Dawn Barrington, Susie Bishop, Laura Bishop, Byron Mark, Emanuel Lieberfreund, Josh Shipton, Connor Malanos, Karen Cortez, and some of Keyna’s former students Isaac and Elliot Lombard, along with her seven-year-old twins, Lyra Rosen and Sol Rosen.
The newly produced album is to be released on November 17th, at Lazy Bones Lounge, in Sydney’s inner west. The night starts with the release of the album, Set Me Free.
YULUGI
Following on after this will be a set delivered by Yulugi.
Pictured: YULUGI
Photo by: Shane Rozario
Yulugi is a collaboration between leading didgeridoo player and song-man, Gumaroy Newman, a proud Gamilaroi and Wakka man and Keyna Wilkins. Yulugi is a dialogue across cultures, inspired by the Australian landscape and animals. The word 'Yulugi' means play, dance or have fun in Gamilaroi. For this special debut post-COVID show, Yulugi will be joined by special guest beatboxer Connor Malanos.
MEREMBA DUO
The final set for the night will be Meremba Duo.
Pictured: Susie & Laura Bishop
A spellbinding folk sister duo formed by Susie & Laura Bishop. A musical world of two sisters: piano songwriting ranging from the epic to the light-hearted with hints of Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor and Tori Amos; gentle folk melodies on guitar influenced by the great storytellers Joni Mitchell, Kate Rusby and Kate Bush. Accordion, piano, violin and guitar create a backdrop for their beautiful vocal harmonies.
