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Exiles and Orange Groves

from Where the Orange Groves Grow by Bilal Nasser

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Where the Orange Groves Grow
    Tangerine Coloured 12 inch Vinyl LP
    Includes Digital download
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    Includes unlimited streaming of Where the Orange Groves Grow via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

"Exiles and Orange Groves" represents the genesis of the entire "WTOGG" project. It was the first piece I composed for this album, and the ideas of distance, memory, and loss that it explores became embedded in the rest of the project.

As for the piece itself: it came out of the accumulation of exile narratives I had been reading, mostly from Palestinian writers and poets like Darwich (check out the Ahmad Al Arabi Album he made with Marcel Khalife), Khanafani (author of "the Land of the Sad Oranges", and "Letters from Gaza"), and Edward Said (Notes on Exile). More importantly than these secondary sources were the stories I have been surrounded by my whole life, and which shaped my consciousness from a young age. Throughout the oral history passed on in my family, a family that has lived the stories told in literature and poetry, as well as the sources themselves, there is a common motif I noticed: remembering the orange groves. It was curious to me how those who carry this history, who ended up scattered throughout the globe throughout the decades, often refer to the same, specific reminder of home. Oranges! How we take for granted something like an orange. For us it is something to avoid eating after we brush our teeth, but for some it represents the idea of a home that they have no ability to return to, or that might not exist anymore. It's not about the oranges, it's about the power of memory, and the weight a subtle reminder can carry...

The form of my composition reflects these ideas. The work centres around a main theme, which is clear in the beginning. As it develops, it gets swallowed up by the landscape around it, until you can't see it over the horizon. It unfolds like a memory: Clear at first, but gradually modulating within the mind, slowly changing, breaking up, fading away. It grows less clear as the work develops, until it can hardly be remembered at all. It never quite comes back.

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from Where the Orange Groves Grow, released October 31, 2021

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Bilal Nasser Windsor, Ontario

POST-CLASSICAL GUITAR

Windsor Ontario

Instagram: bilalguitar

For bookings, inquiries, guitar lessons, email: bilalguitar520@gmail.com

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