Là. A ubiquitous word with a meaning that changes according to its use. It’s a word that points to the multiplicity of language and to identity - something that is used to remarkable effect in this piece of musical art jointly created by Laszlo Umbreit, Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat and labelled after the word in question. Borne out of Brutmann and Efrat’s exhibition of the same name, Là is driven by  a political vision and a lament for the current fate of the people of Palestine’s Negev/Al Naqab desert. The trio along with Ot Lemmens have created a poignant sonic journey that brings together acoustic instruments, processed electronics and mechanical sounds in a prevailing maelstrom of emotion. 

The aforementioned exhibition was staged just last year in Belgium by the Brussels-based Brutmann and Efrat, seasoned collaborators on a series of audio-visual works including installations and performances that demonstrate a unique focus on the character of moving images. As supporters of a free Palestine, their latest work took inspiration from the sense of belonging and refusal to surrender that is innate to both the people and landscape of the Negev/Al Naqab desert. Taking its name from the late, great filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s Là-bas, the exhibition was equally inspired by the director’s final film documentary No Home Movie, which uses a DIY approach to switch between footage of her native Belgium, her mother – a Holocaust survivor, and shots of the desert itself.

The relevance of the word ‘La’ in French, Arabic and Hebrew provided stimulus for both the exhibition and the subsequent ‘accompanying’ album for which the duo recruited long-time collaborator,  Belgian sound-designer and electronic experimenter Laszlo Umbreit. Umbreit shares the duo’s interests around moving image and so for Là, the group drilled down on understanding the way in which images are able to so firmly resonate even when not visually accessible.

It is a short(ish) work that consists of two 10” singles with a composition on each side and in the context of all four pieces, ‘opener’ Ensemble is perhaps an anomaly. A sound collage of looping optical sounds taken from the eleven 16mm film projectors that featured in the exhibition and all donated by fellow artists. Here, an initial whirring is swiftly followed by a repetitive female-voiced ‘La La La’ that recurs throughout, and which is underscored by a pitch-shifting multi-layered drone where mechanical synthetic noises progressively dominate.

 The rest is the dual effort of Efrat and Umbreit. ‘No’ sees Efrat on flute and Umbreit NR2X synth in a track that is initially muted, propelled by a subtle undulating drone until the arrival of rising and abrasive industrial-electronic effects. ‘For Her’ captures the sound of the desert – or somewhere tropical at least – with its synthetic cicada and sinister backdrop of warcraft. The most subtle of the four tracks in its aesthetic, but the most ominous. Finally, Side ‘D’’s ‘There’ is another complex and multi-layered drone boosted by the sound of Efrat’s Wooden temple block and Umbreit’s monomachine. Là places the political at the forefront and through its careful use of sonic exploration generates a deep and contemplative piece of work.