Featured Stories I by Henry Bruce-JonesI 06.04.20

Litter Frog explores Kurdish folklore and her own family history in ‘The Angel’s Voice’ video

Shot between Safeen Mountain in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and her grandparents’ garden in London.

Litter Frog is the musical alias of Mattina Hiwaizi, a multidisciplinary artist, writer, filmmaker and activist whose practice centers around “the miscommunication between the English and Kurdish culture”.

In the video for her cacophonous new track ‘The Angel’s Voice’, Hiwaizi manipulates panoramic iPhone photography and drone footage to draw parallels between Safeen Mountain in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and the walnut tree that grows in her grandparents’ garden in London.

“Mountains are an incredibly important symbol within Kurdish folklore and have been instrumental for the survival of the Kurdish people for centuries”, she explains. “Whether this is by hiding in caves during ethnic-cleansing genocides or by using the fertile land and ecology that surround mountains to grow food and live off the land.”

“My grandparents’ walnut tree to me is a symbol of this history of cultivation and ecology. This particular tree was planted by a squirrel in my grandma’s friends’ garden who lives a couple of doors down from us and was re-homed to our garden in 1994.”

“My grandad particularly loves walnut trees because they were incredibly special to him during his childhood. In his own words, ‘I like walnut trees a lot. I like the smell and the fruit. There were only a few walnut trees in the village, not a lot like figs or pomegranate or apricots. They were the rare and special trees.'”

‘The Angel’s Voice’ is taken from Elevate, a compilation album from music blog and Resonance FM show Dig That Treasure. All proceeds from the compilation will go to CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably.

Elevate arrives on April 27 and is available to pre-order now. Check out the album artwork below.