Saint Abdullah - Inshallahlaland (2022)

A Note From Saint Abdullah
In the 22 minute piece 'glamour factory', we start things off by sampling the voice of one of Iran's pre-eminent film voiceover artists, whose career lasted decades in Iranian cinema. Here he was, receiving a lifetime achievement award for his services to the film industry.

And in his speech, he started off by saying that society does not accept us for having multiple identities. They want us to keep as one. Understandable. Measurable. And what film allowed him to do, was to break free from that.

This is something that we feel very intensely. And in response, sound and music offers freedom from it all. So then, it felt fitting to sample the ultimate sampler. To speak about the notion of identities through the person who has lived it, acknowledged it.

From here, it is about making certain pit stops across inshallahlaland. These are dense streets. We live on top of each other. This place that we crave creating out of thin air is a lived place. Permanent. In Inshallahland, we happen to hold up a mirror to realize our interconnectedness, we are forced to reckon with the fact that we are multiple things. We connect the dots only together. We hold up a mirror.

It's not all serious. In a lot of ways, the piece is humorous. If only you could understand. We can and do exercise the right to laugh at ourselves. We should always be able to laugh.

What is it with voices? Human voices? They carry a special place for us. Voices and stories. They become your friends, these samples. You build a relationship with them. Night by night, revisit and reinterpret. Introduce them to other friends and stories. Maybe together, if only you shared space, you'd then understand each other. There's blind aspiration in these stories.

Huge thank you to Lawrence for his guidance and support.