This album is based of a novel The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett.
Short-listed for the Whitbread Book Award in 1998 „The Catastrophist“ is a haunting novel set in the politically charged landscape of the Belgian Congo just before independence in 1959.
James Gillespie, an Irish writer, follows his Italian lover Inès Sabiani to Léopoldville. She is working there as a journalist. Although they are good in bed together, they are as unlike as lovers can be. He is a pragmatic outsider and observer, who will not allow his words put at other peoples service, while she is a passionate supporter of Congolese independence and generally finds herself part of the story as much as covering it. In a country that is self-destructing upon giving birth to itself, Gillespie is plunged into violence and betrayal, and moved by love to a final act of nobility.
It’s a story of failure, not only for Gillespie but also for the Congolese democracy and at the most, for western politics.
The consequences we can still see today.
Result is a deeply touching piece of music. Ronan Bennett wrote about it:
“...Listening to the songs brought back many vivid memories of the period I was going through when I wrote the book. I sat in my chair and listened to it over and over. They are all very beautiful songs – I hear echoes of Cohen, but also of Waits. If I have a favourite it is “Hold Up The Moon”. I heard it in my head as I drove into town this morning, and even as I sit here to write this...”
Artist Statement
When we choose the novel for our next project in 2001, we did it mainly for its language and all those familiar ups and downs of an intimate relationship. However, the fascination of its background, the story of the Congo itself, lasted on.
Right now, after more than 4 decades, there is an free election in the Congo, supervised by an UN-Mission. Even German soldiers have been send to Kinshasa (the former Léopoldville) to secure this historical event.
The Congo is back in the headlines and that's why we decided to have a second look at it ourselves.
The history of the Congo can easily be used as a blueprint for many African states.
On June 30.1960, after almost a hundred years of colonialism, the country was robed of their natural and human recourses, left without a working infrastructure and education system and thrown into the chaos of independence.
It is hard to tell who had it’s hands in the game but the Democratic Republic of Congo ended already on November 24.1965 into the regime of Joseph Mubuto.
It is difficult to accuse the ones who are guilty, the ones who are still winning out of this, the looser stays the same: the people.
Dear Africa, land where the roots of mankind lie (maybe this is something we do not remember often enough) we wish by heart that history will not repeat itself.
For those, who are interested in further information, we like to recommend the following links:
Links
We like to recommend the movie “Lumumba” by Raul Peck. It is telling the breathtaking story of the so far only free elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Patrice E. Lumumba, and the background of his murder.
Doctors Without Borders
Le Monde Diplomatique - English Version
Foreign Office
Democratic Republic Congo
