
2017 / Electronic
DURATION
5 minutes, 12 seconds
- Return to East Aleppo Frank Horvat (piano) 05:09
Programme Notes
On January 18, 2017, I read a powerful article on BBC News by journalist Jeremy Brown, who provided a detailed, first-hand account of 40,000 displaced people returning to their homes in war-ravaged East Aleppo, Syria. The hope that they might return to something resembling the lives they had fled is a tragic distortion of reality. Most buildings and homes were reduced to rubble. Those who survived the carpet bombing and sniper fire had lost everything but their lives. Yet, many were determined to make the best of it. As with any war, it is the common people who bear the greatest suffering, and for the residents of East Aleppo, this was painfully true.
Inspired by Brown’s in-depth article, I tried to imagine what it would have been like to walk through such surroundings—to navigate the rubble, the surreal scenes, and the devastation. This composition became the soundtrack to those visions in my mind, an attempt to capture the weight of the destruction and the emotional turmoil it stirred within me. Through the music, I sought to reflect the sorrow, resilience, and quiet strength of those who had to endure such unimaginable loss.
– Frank Horvat

RECORDING
Never Again Is Now