PJ Harvey & Ramy Essam – “The Camp” Video
About a month after releasing her “A Dog Called Money” b/w “I’ll Be Waiting” single, PJ Harvey has a new song. And this one, as The Guardian points out, is a collaboration with the Egyptian musician Ramy Essam. Essam, an artist famously associated with the Cairo demonstrations during the 2011 Arab Spring, co-wrote “The Camp” with Harvey, and the song is specifically intended to raise awareness of the plight of Syrian refugees currently living in Lebanon. It’s a stark and lovely folk-influenced song, probably the best I’ve heard from Harvey lately, with lyrics about kids stranded in desperate circumstances. And its video, from photographer Giles Duley, mixes shots of Harvey and Essam recording together with photos of displaced families. Watch it below.
“The Camp” will be out digitally 6/9.