Gordon Koang: Unity
<p><span><span>- Have you heard Gordon Koang? The hip new name of Australian indie music has just dropped <em>Unity</em> - his eleventh album, but first as an Australian resident.</span></span></p>
No Joy: Motherhood
<p><span><span>- With a full five years since their last studio album, one would be quite justified in pondering what Canadian shoegaze outfit No Joy have up their sleeves in 2020. A slight clue comes in the 2018 EP they worked on with former <strong>Spacemen 3 </strong>member <strong>Sonic Boom</strong>, which redirected their dreamy melodies towards a thick blend of electronica and experimental noise.
Gordon Koang - Unity
Music in Exile is proud to present Kone Ke Ran, the third single from Gordon Koang’s forthcoming album, Unity. Kone Ke Ran is Gordon’s musical offering to thank an aid worker and counsellor who was working with a UN organisation in a refugee camp. “I love him, he’s a very good man. When he talks to the people, I hear his voice and he talks to the people in a good way.” Singing in Nuer, Gordon thanks this man for his wisdom, kindness and help. In true Gordon style, positivity shines throughout this track! He reminds us that we are all connected by our humanness and we can make the world a more caring place by helping each other. The underlying connection throughout all of us is love!
“I compose a song for this man because I love this guy! This man is doing the good work in South Sudan after the war. He is working with the UN. He is talking to people about their stress because he wants them to be happy." Gordon Koang
Gordon Koang is a Nuer musician, hailing from the banks of the River Nile in what is now South Sudan. Born blind, he began playing music on the streets of Juba as a young man though has now become a grassroots hero, the voice of the Nuer people, a prominent figure in the fight for cultural independence in South Sudan, affectionately known as the ‘King of Music.’
Unity is, remarkably, Gordon’s eleventh full-length album, and his first since coming to Australia. It is his only recorded output in the painstakingly long six years of living as an asylum seeker, and the album was completed just weeks before Gordon was awarded his permanent residency. In late 2019, Gordon began a series of collaborations with musicians from around Australia, in search of a new sound that would be suited to his adopted home. He now proudly calls himself an ‘Australian’, a term which so many from around the world have come to know as their own. Through his recordings, Gordon hopes to reach as many new listeners as he can around the world. He wants everyone to hear his message - on the radio, in clubs, at festivals, on the street.
And what is this message? Unity. Peace between all people of the world, regardless of religion or cultural differences. A painfully first-hand experience of what these rifts can create between people has led Gordon to devote his life, and his music, to a simple message of peace, love and unity. Love each other, and love yourself. It’s not so hard!
“This album is about uniting people together. If the world unites itself, no one will say “I am alone.”
- Gordon Koang
12PM ZEDLINES - AUGUST 24
[Image: Flickr/Pat Charles]
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