Daniel and Patrick Lazour Release FLAP MY WINGS: SONGS FROM WE LIVE IN CAIRO

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.

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.

TRACK LIST

1. Genealogy of Revolution

VOCALS and VOCAL ARRANGEMENT: Hamed Sinno

PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith

RECORDING LOCATION: Philadelphia, NYC

2. Wall Song

VOCALS: the Lazours

OUD FEATURE: Hadi Eldebek

PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith

BASS: John Murchison

ORGAN: Madeline Smith

GUITAR: Daniel Lazour

RECORDING LOCATION: NYC

3. 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

4. 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

5. Loud Voice

VOCALS: Haboya

ARRANGEMENT, PRODUCER, KEYBOARDS: Mohamed Araki

BASS, DRUMS: Mohammed Hassan

PERCUSSION: Jeremy Smith

RECORDING LOCATIONS: Cairo, Boston, Washington D.C., NYC

6. 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

7. 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

8. Each & Every Name (Instrumental)

FEATURED CELLIST: Naseem Alatrash

ARRANGEMENT: Naseem Alatrash

RECORDING LOCATION: Washington D.C

9. The 18 Days: In The Morning

10. The 18 Days: A Million People

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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.