This edition of Resist / Tracks features the track “Solidarity” by Chilean-based ambient music artist Hakim George. The song is part of his 2015 release titled “Palestine.” George's prolific compositions utilize field recordings, ambient electronics and experimental acoustics to create a politicized sonic atmosphere. “Solidarity” opens with protest chants that eventually blend into sounds of alarm, artillery and screams. A theremin carries tones throughout the track as more samples overlap into a moment of lively singing and drumming that underscores the inertia of resistance. Other tracks on the release include titles such as, “pregnant at checkpoint,” “BDS,” “Resistance Without Fear,” “Here come the soldiers!,” “Al Nakba,” and “One State Solution.”
“Palestine” was released just over a year after the summer 2014 massacre in the Gaza Strip, where 2,251 Palestinians were killed. Another 11,231 Palestinians were injured, including 3,436 children, a third of whom sustained permanent disability as a result of their injuries. The mass violence and destruction by Israel was a radicalizing force in many resistance movements. It sparked public demonstrations in Brooklyn by American Jews which would turn into mass mobilization through the launch of the If Not Now movement. During the time of the these attacks, the Chilean government suspended free trade agreement talks with Israel. The people of Chile have shown broad support for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS), and in 2018 the National Congress of Chile overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding the government ban products from illegal Israeli settlements.
“These compositions are an attempt of sonic imagination to explore the multiple experiences of time.”
Spanning 216 releases over the course of nine years, Hakim George's discography explores Palestinian resistance and Chilean solidarity in the context of the violence perpetrated by Israel and its Western allies. According to his Bandcamp page, “hakim george is a concept. a cultural mixture of resistance and inappropriateness. a proper name that is borrowed. a sound exploration as an expansion of existence”.
With 19 releases alone since October 7th, 2023, Hakim George's latest EPs are aptly named “palestinian resistance concepts,” “anti-zionist concepts” and “la resistencia de la memoria” (the resistance of memory). George’s music is a medium and meditation for resistance, leveraging collective and personal memory to encourage imagination and new pathways for a future beyond colonial violence.
In a statement accompanying his 2023 release “i look to the future,” George explains, “We have to think about the future. It comes to us without a horizon. A strange darkness without edge.” He says the violent forces of fascism and racism “throw over our bodies a destiny that is past and future. The past is in the future as a burden, a push towards the abyss.”
“These compositions are an attempt of sonic imagination to explore the multiple experiences of time,” George continues. “The opening up of time to its own infinity is a political action against the empty and homogeneous time of fascism.”
Hakim George’s “Solidarity” is one of the many threads he uses to weave a space for memory-sharing, reflection and global solidarity. His work demonstrates that the fight for Palestinian liberation is imperative to co-creating a shared future.