ON THE 10th ANNIVERSARY OF THE TAHRIR SQUARE PROTESTS DANIEL AND PATRICK LAZOUR RELEASE “FLAP MY WINGS: SONGS FROM WE LIVE IN CAIRO”
Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Matthew Troillett / Marie Bshara
rick@omdkc.com / matthew@omdkc.com / marie@omdkc.com 212 695 7400
FOR RELEASE ON MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021
ON THE
TENTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
TAHRIR SQUARE PROTESTS
THAT BEGAN THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION
RICHARD RODGERS AWARD WINNERS
SONGWRITING BROTHER DUO
DANIEL AND PATRICK LAZOUR
RELEASE THEIR FIRST ALBUM
FLAP MY WINGS:
SONGS FROM WE LIVE IN CAIRO
VIRTUALLY PRODUCED DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
FEATURING ARTISTS FROM
AROUND THE GLOBE INCLUDING
RAMY ESSAM, EMEL MATHLOUTHI, ROTANA, HAMED SINNO, GANZEER, AND MORE
New York, NY – Brothers, songwriters, and collaborators, Daniel and Patrick Lazour today released their independently-produced album Flap My Wings: Songs from We Live in Cairo, on the tenth anniversary of the Tahrir Square protests that began the Egyptian Revolution in 2011.
Flap My Wings: Songs from We Live in Cairo, featuring songs from their musical, the Richard Rodgers Award-winning We Live in Cairo, seen in the Spring of 2019 at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is now available via iTunes or Spotify (click to download).
“Ahead of future iterations of this musical, the confluence of the pandemic and national reckoning with state violence and abuses of power challenged us to engage with We Live in Cairo differently,” said Daniel and Patrick. “When we are unable come together as normal, how else might we connect to imagine a world different from our own? It is our hope that this album helps to create community through music in an increasingly fractured society.”
Virtually gathering an extraordinary group of artists from across the globe during the current coronavirus pandemic, the remotely recorded album features artists from the cast of the musical as well as major Arab activist-songwriters, including Ramy Essam, Emel Mathlouthi, Rotana, Hadi Eldebek, Hamed Sinno, Naseem Alatrash, and the brothers themselves.
In addition to the artists heard on the album, acclaimed Egyptian artist Ganzeer has created the album artwork and a special animation of the title track, Flap My Wings. Animation & Art Direction is by Paul MacLachlan.
CLICK TO WATCH & DOWNLOAD ANIMATION, BY GANZEER.
Flap My Wings: Songs from We Live in Cairo is executive produced by Madeleine Foster Bersin; music supervision and selected arrangements by Madeline Smith; album art by Ganzeer; conceived with Taibi Magar; music production, sound engineering, and mixing by Robin Buyer; mastering by Ryan Schwabe; with additional orchestrations by Michael Starobin and percussion direction by Jeremy Smith. Flap My Wings: Songs from We Live in Cairo, written by the Lazours, was recorded remotely and at Pulse Music (NYC).
Flap My Wings: Songs from We Live in Cairo was supported by The American Repertory Theater at Harvard University (Diane Paulus, Artistic Director; Diane Borger, Executive Producer) where the stage production of We Live in Cairo had its world premiere on May 22, 2019.
PRAISE FOR “WE LIVE IN CAIRO”
“★★★★! Non-stop energy and spectacular visual effect. The cast is exemplary.”
— New York Stage Review
“A smart, tight musical balancing nuanced relationships and grand, global ideas that could debut on Broadway tomorrow.”
— The Boston Herald
“[We Live in Cairo] evokes the emotional arc of [the 2011 revolution] with astonishing authenticity.”
— Arab Stages
LINKS
iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/flap-my-wings-songs-from-we-live-in-cairo/1548238351
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/album/4LEu0IWVwhHqJKxX0emfoO?si=80f5F7wqROyDPQoFcmmZcQ
ALBUM ARTWORK & MATERIALS
Click here to download album artwork and materials.
TRACK LIST
- Genealogy of Revolution
VOCALS and VOCAL ARRANGEMENT: Hamed Sinno
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
RECORDING LOCATION: Philadelphia, NYC - Wall Song
VOCALS: the Lazours
OUD FEATURE: Hadi Eldebek
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
BASS: John Murchison
ORGAN: Madeline Smith
GUITAR: Daniel Lazour
RECORDING LOCATION: NYC
- Cairo Street Scenes
VOCALS: Rotana
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
BASS: John Murchison
OUD: Ghassan Sawalhi
PIANO: Madeline Smith
BACKGROUND VOCALS: the Lazours and Madeline Smith
VIOLIN: Bengisu Gokce
CELLO: Naseem Alatrash
VOCAL PRODUCTION: Satta
RECORDING LOCATIONS: NYC, Los Angeles
- Movement
VOCALS: Jakeim Hart, Parisa Shahmir
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
BASS: John Murchison
GUITAR, STRING ARRANGEMENT: Daniel Lazour
VIOLIN: Bengisu Gokce
CELLO: Naseem Alatrash
RECORDING LOCATIONS: NYC, Mexico City, Boston
- Loud Voice
VOCALS: Haboya
ARRANGEMENT, PRODUCER, KEYBOARDS: Mohamed Araki
BASS, DRUMS: Mohammed Hassan
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
RECORDING LOCATIONS: Cairo, Boston, Washington D.C., NYC
- Flap My Wings
VOCALS: the Lazours
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
BASS & QANUN: John Murchison
GUITAR: Daniel Lazour
OUD: Ghassan Sawalhi
VIOLIN: Bengisu Gokce
CELLO: Naseem Alatrash
ARRANGEMENT, PIANO: Madeline Smith
SELECTED ORCHESTRATIONS: Michael Starobin
RECORDING LOCATIONS: NYC, Boston
- Living Here
VOCALS and VOCAL ARRANGEMENT: Emel Mathlouthi
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
BASS: John Murchison
PIANO: Madeline Smith
GUITAR: Daniel Lazour
OUD: Ghassan Sawalhi
VIOLIN: Bengisu Gokce
CELLO: Naseem Alatrash
RECORDING LOCATIONS: Paris, NYC, Boston
- Each & Every Name (Instrumental)
FEATURED CELLIST: Naseem Alatrash
ARRANGEMENT: Naseem Alatrash
RECORDING LOCATION: Washington D.C
- The 18 Days: In The Morning
- The 18 Days: A Million People
- The 18 Days: Our Square
VOCALISTS: Cast of the American Repertory Theater’s 2019 Production
SOLOIST: Parisa Shahmir
ADDITIONAL VOCALS: Jakeim Hart, Sharif Afifi, Layan Elwazani, Gil Perez-Abraham, Abubakr Ali, Dana Saleh Omar, Madeline Smith, the Lazours
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
BASS: John Murchison
ELECTRIC GUITAR: Nacho Gonzalez
ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Daniel Lazour
OUD: Ghassan Sawalhi
VIOLIN: Bengisu Gokce
CELLO: Naseem Alatrash
SELECTED ORCHESTRATIONS: Michael Starobin
PIANO, ARRANGEMENTS: Madeline Smith
RECORDING LOCATIONS: NYC, Mexico City, Boston, Washington D.C., Various
- Tahrir is Now
VOCALISTS: Ramy Essam, the Lazours
PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith
BASS: John Murchison
ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Daniel Lazour
ELECTRIC GUITAR: Nacho Gonzalez
OUD: Ghassan Sawalhi
ACCORDION: Madeline Smith
VIOLIN: Bengisu Gokce
CELLO: Naseem Alatrash
VOCAL ARRANGEMENTS: RAMY ESSAM, MADELINE SMITH
ADDITIONAL ORCHESTRATIONS: Michael Starobin
RECORDING LOCATIONS: Stockholm, NYC, Various
- Dreaming Words (Demo)
VOCALS: the Lazours
GUITAR: Daniel Lazour
RECORDING LOCATION: Seabright Beach, Santa Cruz, California
ABOUT THE ALBUM
Flap My Wings: Songs from We Live in Cairo features reconceptualized songs from the score of Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour’s Richard Rodgers Award-winning musical We Live in Cairo as interpreted by some of the world’s foremost Arab and Arab-American singers, musicians, and revolutionaries alongside the Lazours themselves. Returning to the score’s roots as a series of protest songs and using remote recording technology to engage collaborators around the world, Flap My Wings, which was conceived and recorded entirely during 2020’s global quarantines and lockdowns, explores the politics and aesthetics of protest and self-expression under extraordinary circumstances.
ABOUT “WE LIVE IN CAIRO”
Inspired by the young Egyptians who took to the streets in 2011 to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak, We Live in Cairo follows six revolutionary students armed with laptops and cameras, guitars and spray cans as they come of age in contemporary Cairo. We Live in Cairo moves from the jubilation of Tahrir Square through the tumultuous years that followed. As escalating division and violence lead to a military crackdown, the revolutionaries of Tahrir must confront the question of how—or even whether—to keep their dreams of change alive.
BIOGRAPH IES
Daniel and Patrick Lazour are brothers and music theatre writers of Lebanese descent. Their musical, We Live in Cairo, about the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA as part of their 2018/2019 season directed by Obie Award-winner Taibi Maga and was previously workshopped at the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference and at New York Theatre Workshop under the 2016 Richard Rodgers Award. They have developed their work during residencies at the O’Neill, Ucross, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. Their new musical about cancer and its treatment through the ages, was workshopped at the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Theatre, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and is being developed with the American Repertory Theater. Patrick and Daniel were 2015-16 Dramatists Guild Fellows and are New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspects. Most recently, they were artists-in-residence at the American University in Cairo and are teaching artists at Lincoln Center Theater. They perform their songs live at the Boiler Room in New York City.
Ganzeer. Described as a “chameleon” by Carlo McCormick in the New York Times, Ganzeer operates seamlessly between art, design, and storytelling, creating what he has coined: Concept Pop. His medium of choice as described by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie on Artforum.com is “a little bit of everything: stencils, murals, paintings, pamphlets, comics, installations, and graphic design”, things which he may have utilized in the unseating of not one Egyptian dictator, but two. Third one still pending.
With over 40 exhibitions to his name, Ganzeer’s work has been seen in a wide variety of art galleries, impromptu spaces, alleyways, and major museums around the world, such as The Brooklyn Museum in New York, The Palace of the Arts in Cairo, Greek State Museum in Thessaloniki, the V&A in London, and the Edith Russ Haus in Oldenburg.
He has been an artist-in-residence in Germany, Poland, Jordan, Holland, and Finland, and has lived extensively in Cairo, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and finally Houston—where he is now based.
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