Interview: Kefaya and Elaha Soroor
Our Freedoms Must Be Won reflects a wider struggle for freedom, but it comes from particular political realities, including displacement, war, genocide, migration and imperialist structures of power that oppress separate people from their homes, families and communities.
Through September I kept seeing adverts online for a tour that sounded and looked fantastic! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make any of the dates but it did bring Kefaya and Elaha Soroor and their new album Our Freedoms Must Be Won on to my radar!
Now consisting of Elaha Soroor on vocals, Al MacSween on synthesisers and bass synth, Giuliano Modarelli on guitars and Joost Hendrickx on drums the band started off in 2012 as a musical/political project between Giuliano and Al. They were then joined by Joost Hendrickx and the project continued to develop.
Recorded while travelling and collaborating with other musicians Kefaya’s first album, Radio International, came out in 2016 on their own label and explores themes of internationalism, equality and liberty. They then joined up with women’s rights activist and musician Elaha Soroor for their next album Songs of Our Mothers released on Bella Union in 2019. This album focused on the experience of women in Afghanistan and the role of folk songs in cultural and social transmission.
This album was followed up in 2026 by their latest album Our Freedoms Must Be Won. The album engages with global themes of war, genocide, migration, imperialism and oppression and shaped by the experience of the Hazara community in Afghanistan and the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. As Giuliano comments in the interview ‘Freedom isn’t simply an individual privilege or something that can be granted from above. It involves struggles over the conditions in which people live, the right to move and belong, and the ability to determine their own futures. It’s a collective responsibility’.
Intrigued and excited by their worldview, music and approach I asked the band to consider an interview for Echoes and Dust and they kindly agreed.
E&D: Could you tell us something about the history of Kefaya, you started off in Leeds didn’t you?
Giuliano: Yes, Kefaya started in Leeds, initially through the musical collaboration between Al MacSween and myself. Leeds was an important place for us because it is home to many immigrant communities and diasporas, with strong connections between different communities and cultural scenes. There was a vibrant independent music scene, with jazz, improvised and experimental music alongside Indian classical music, folkloric traditions and the city’s Caribbean communities and sound system culture, particularly dub. All of this shaped how we thought about music and composition.
Initially, Kefaya was more of a collective than a conventional band. Al and I were particularly interested in songs of resistance and struggle, political songs from different parts of the world and the histories behind them. We worked with a large group of musicians from different musical traditions, learning from one another and developing ideas collectively. When Joost Hendrickx joined us, the project gradually shifted towards original material, centred on experimentation, improvisation and our own musical research. That process of developing a shared musical language has remained central to Kefaya ever since.
E&D: Kefaya: band or idea? Art project? Space of resistance? Way of being?
Giuliano: I think it is all of those things. As I mentioned, Kefaya began with a desire to explore the relationship between music and politics. The name comes from the Arabic word meaning “enough”, associated with protest movements and demands for political change.
For us, the project is also a way of questioning how history is told, whose experiences are remembered and whose voices are excluded. There are connections between struggles in different parts of the world, including resistance to colonialism, imperialism and fascism, but those connections need to be understood through their specific histories rather than reduced to a single narrative.
Musically, Kefaya is a space where we can investigate these questions without prescribing what the music should sound like. It allows us to work collectively, learn from other musicians and traditions, and develop our own musical language. It is political, but not because every song needs to deliver a particular message. The politics are also in how we work, the histories we engage with and the kind of independence we try to maintain.
E&D: Your first album, Radio International, came out in 2016. Could you talk us through the concept and practice behind it?
Giuliano: Radio International developed over several years through our travels, musical research and collaborations, particularly in India, Palestine, Italy and Spain, against a backdrop of growing fearmongering and an increasingly dominant anti-immigration narrative, which continues to this day. As I mentioned we were collecting and studying songs of resistance from different parts of the world, trying to understand their musical languages and the historical and political circumstances in which they had emerged.
The idea of a pirate radio station became a way of bringing these different voices and histories together. We imagined the album as a transmission moving between places, histories, musical traditions and political struggles. Field recordings, political voices and music became part of that idea.
Musically, we weren’t interested in reproducing traditional songs or treating them as samples of something exotic. We wanted to learn from the musicians and traditions we encountered and find ways of working with that knowledge through our own compositions, improvisations and production. The album took shape gradually in the studio, with a relatively layered and carefully constructed sound.
Looking back, it established many of the questions that have continued throughout Kefaya’s work: how music carries political memory, how different struggles can speak to one another, and how we can make music that engages with those histories without losing its own identity.
We’re currently re-releasing the album to mark its 10th anniversary, with seven bonus live tracks from that period. The reissue will be out in November (1st unissued single on 30th Oct), on vinyl (with hand-stencilled sleeves) and CD as well as digitally.
E&D: What sort of issues were you engaging with on that album?
Giuliano: The album was concerned with migration, borders, colonial histories, political oppression and the ways power shapes people’s lives. But rather than approaching these as abstract subjects, we wanted to explore them through the songs, voices and histories of people who had experienced those struggles.
Anti-imperialism was an important thread. We were interested in how imperial power continues to shape political relationships and conflicts, and how resistance movements have used music to organise, communicate and preserve a sense of collective identity. We also looked at struggles against fascism and other forms of authoritarianism, and at the role of music in movements demanding freedom and social change.
One of the things that became clear through the research was that songs can travel far beyond the circumstances in which they were written. They can preserve a particular history while acquiring new meanings for people facing different conditions.
E&D: You used multiple lead vocalists, didn’t you?
Giuliano: Yes. Having several vocalists was part of the concept and the musical approach. We wanted the album to contain different voices, languages and musical perspectives, rather than having a single narrator speak for all the histories we were exploring.
Each singer brought their own musical identity and relationship to the material.
That openness to different voices also reflected the idea behind Radio International, a space in which different experiences could be heard without being forced into one uniform narrative.
E&D: Kefaya sounds like a very collaborative, open project, responding to the world around it. Would that be a fair description?
Giuliano: Yes, although collaboration for us means more than inviting different musicians to contribute to a record. It involves listening, learning and allowing other people’s knowledge and experiences to change how we think and make music.
Our approach has developed through years of working together, travelling, studying musical traditions and collaborating with musicians from different communities. These experiences have shaped our musical language.
We also see that openness as a way of resisting the idea that music has to fit neatly into established genres or commercial categories. We are interested in music that grows out of particular histories and experiences, and in the possibilities that emerge when musicians work together over time.
At the same time, we don’t believe music exists outside politics. The conditions in which people live, move, work and create affect the music they make. Responding to the world around us is therefore not an additional theme for Kefaya; it is part of the reason the project exists.
E&D: You also set up a record label called Radio International. Was that about retaining artistic control, or were there other reasons? Is the label still going?
Giuliano: We set up Radio International because we wanted to create a space where we could release music independently and support artists whose work we believed in. Artistic control was certainly part of it, but the motivation was broader than simply having control over our own records.
We wanted to support adventurous music that might not fit established commercial categories, particularly work with a strong artistic identity, a political perspective or a relationship with musical traditions that are often poorly represented by the industry. We were interested in creating a platform for artists to develop their work on their own terms, beyond the expectations of genre or marketability.
The name came from our first album, but the label grew out of the same ideas about independence, collaboration and the circulation of music beyond established channels.
We’re now rebuilding Radio International, which is challenging at a time when streaming has made it increasingly difficult for independent artists and labels to sustain themselves. The use of AI and the growing control of music distribution by a small number of companies raise further questions about the value of creative work and who benefits from it. But those are also reasons why independent platforms remain important to us. 2026 has been a productive year, we have released Our Freedoms Must Be Won, an Indian classical album by my teacher Prattyush Banerjee and we are just about to release Radio International (10th Anniversary) and my first solo album Ridley Road in Feb.
E&D: Your second album was Songs of Our Mothers (2019) with Elaha Soroor. How did you get to know one another and end up working together?
Giuliano: Our collaboration with Elaha Soroor developed out of a shared interest in music as a way of carrying histories, experiences and political ideas. Elaha is an extraordinary singer and artist, and working with her opened up a much deeper engagement with musical traditions from Afghanistan, particularly Afghan women’s folk songs, and especially the Hazara tradition and history of struggle.
Elaha brought the knowledge of the repertoire and the histories surrounding it, while we explored how those songs might be approached through our own musical language. The intention wasn’t to modernise the music simply for the sake of doing something contemporary, but to find a way of working together that respected its history and identity while allowing it to develop.
The collaboration became much more than a single project. We learned a great deal from Elaha, musically and politically, and that exchange has continued into Our Freedoms Must Be Won. We see her as a central creative partner in this work.
E&D: Was there a change of focus on that album, a more in-depth study of certain issues?
Giuliano: Yes. Songs of Our Mothers focused more closely on Afghan women’s folk songs and on the relationship between music, gender, memory and cultural transmission. The songs carried experiences and histories that had often been repressed and marginalised. They reflect the conditions women face in Afghanistan and around the world, challenging patriarchy everywhere while celebrating the strength and resilience of Afghan women.
The project raised questions about what happens to musical traditions when people are displaced, when communities are separated from their homes, and when political circumstances make the transmission of culture difficult. Songs can carry knowledge and memories that aren’t necessarily recorded in official histories. They can also preserve experiences of resistance and solidarity across generations.
Working with Elaha made us think more deeply about our responsibilities when approaching a tradition that isn’t our own. It reinforced the importance of sustained collaboration and listening, rather than treating musical traditions as material to borrow. The record was a meeting between Elaha’s knowledge and experience and our collective musical approach, rather than an attempt to recreate Afghan music from the outside.
E&D: This album also included a lot of collaborations with other musicians, didn’t it?
Giuliano: Yes. Collaboration has always been central to Kefaya, and Songs of Our Mothers continued that approach. The musicians involved brought different experiences and musical knowledge to the project, helping us develop arrangements that could respond to the songs without losing their emotional and historical significance. It was a pleasure to work with artists such as Yazz Ahmed, Mohsen Namjoo, Manos Achalinotopoulos, Tamar Osborn, and many more.
But the most important collaboration was the sustained relationship with Elaha. Her voice, her story and experience of exile, her musical understanding and knowledge of the repertoire shaped the direction of the album. It wasn’t a case of us arranging songs and asking a vocalist to perform them; the work developed through an exchange between us.
That process also influenced the way we approached Our Freedoms Must Be Won. Over time, we developed a shared musical vocabulary, and Elaha’s knowledge of Afghan musical traditions has become part of how we think about rhythm, melody and composition.
E&D: Kefaya and Elaha Soroor released Our Freedoms Must Be Won this year to positive reviews. How have things felt around the release?
Giuliano: It’s been encouraging to see the album reaching people and receiving thoughtful responses. For us, the record represents an important stage in our work together, both musically and politically. It feels more direct and immediate than some of our earlier material, and we’re pleased that listeners have responded to that.
The album also comes from a difficult political moment. The themes of freedom, displacement, war and resistance aren’t distant subjects for us, and we didn’t want to make a record that treated them as abstract ideas. What’s happening in Afghanistan, the genocide in Palestine, the authoritarian regimes that are developing everywhere are all realities that are making us progressively more angry and deserved an angrier response.
We’re particularly interested in how the music is received by listeners who recognise some of those experiences in their own lives. Ultimately, we hope the album can create space for people to engage with the music and the ideas behind it, while standing on its own as a musical work.
E&D: How would you describe it musically?
Giuliano: The album moves towards a heavier, more direct sound, drawing on post-punk, psychedelic rock, jazz, electronic, alongside rhythmic and melodic ideas informed by Afghan and Hazara musical traditions. There are heavy guitars, analogue synths, hypnotic repetition as well as shifting time signatures, with a strong emphasis on the physical energy of the rhythm section. A more angry album reflecting what we are feeling inside.
We recorded together in a residential studio in Eastbourne over roughly two weeks. Much of the material emerged from riffs, poems, rhythmic ideas, fragments and collective improvisations. After years of playing together, the three of us have developed a shared vocabulary, and Elaha’s contribution has also changed how we approach rhythm and melody.
Compared with Radio International, which was more layered and constructed in the studio, this record has a more immediate, live quality. We wanted to retain the intensity and interaction of playing together in a room, while using production to develop the music’s psychedelic and electronic dimensions.
E&D: Although the title would resonate with many groups and individuals, does it refer to any situation primarily?
Giuliano: Our Freedoms Must Be Won reflects a wider struggle for freedom, but it comes from particular political realities, including displacement, war, genocide, migration and imperialist structures of power that oppress separate people from their homes, families and communities.
The album has been shaped in particular by the ongoing persecution of the Hazara community in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power, the genocide and occupation in Palestine, and the increasingly aggressive, warmongering and imperialist policies of the US and Europe. These struggles reflect a wider crisis of imperial power, expressed through war, domination and the violent suppression of democratic freedoms and self-determination.
Freedom isn’t simply an individual privilege or something that can be granted from above. It involves struggles over the conditions in which people live, the right to move and belong, and the ability to determine their own futures. It’s a collective responsibility. Those struggles have different histories, but there are connections between them, particularly where colonialism, imperial power and political violence continue to shape people’s lives.
We don’t want to suggest that a record can resolve these problems. Music cannot replace political organisation, collective struggle or direct action. But it can be part of it, represents a mood, preserve memory, express experiences that are often ignored, and help people recognise connections between their own lives and wider struggles. That’s the space we wanted this album to occupy.
E&D: You did a short UK tour in the second half of September. How did that go?
Giuliano: It was good to bring the new material on the road and see how it worked in a live setting. We played Gateshead, London, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol, and the shows gave us a chance to reconnect with audiences in different parts of the UK.
The new music has a strong physical quality, and playing it live brings out a different side of the band. The repetition, shifting rhythms and heavier sound give the band room to stretch out, while the political content remains central to the songs.
We invited a number of political and anti-imperialist organisations to have stalls at our concerts, including the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), United Against Fascism, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
We also wanted the London show to mark the release properly and give people a chance to experience the record as a live performance rather than only through the recordings. Touring is an important part of developing this music, and we’d like to take the project to more audiences.
E&D: Will there be any chances to catch you live later in the year?
Giuliano: We’re looking at further opportunities, although we don’t have a full run of UK dates to announce at the moment. We are headlining MusicPort Festival on 23rd Oct. The priority is to take Our Freedoms Must Be Won to audiences beyond the places we’ve already played, including opportunities in Europe and further afield.
As independent musicians, touring involves a lot of practical considerations, but we want to keep the music moving and continue building connections with audiences and promoters.
E&D: What is the rest of 2026 and 2027 looking like for you?
Giuliano: The immediate focus is on continuing to develop the live project around Our Freedoms Must Be Won, finding opportunities to tour in Europe and beyond, and developing Radio International as a platform for other artists as well as our own work.
We have another EP of fantastic material that was developed during the recording session we did for the last album that we’d like to release…
More broadly, we’re interested in continuing to work across different musical communities and political contexts, while maintaining the independence that allows us to make decisions on our own terms. The challenge is to sustain that kind of work in the current music industry, but it’s also what makes it worth pursuing.
E&D: Where can people get hold of your albums?
Giuliano: Our albums are available digitally through the usual streaming platforms, and physical releases can be found through independent record shops, our own channels (Bandcamp) and at live shows when we’re touring.
People can also look for the records through our websites and follow Kefaya and Radio International online for news about releases, upcoming shows and the label’s future projects. We want to keep the music accessible while continuing to support independent ways of releasing and discovering it.
Much thanks to Giuliano for time, thoughts and words.
You can hear/buy Our Freedoms Must Be Won here.
Bibliography.
https://www.radiointernationalrecords.com
https://kefayamusic.bandcamp.com/album/radio-international
https://www.facebook.com/ElahaSoroorOfficial
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=kefaya%20%26%20elaha%20soroor
https://bellaunion.com/pages/kefaya-elaha-soroor
Broughton, Simon. 2022. ‘Elaha Soroor interview: “Modesty is part of the identity of Afghan women and if you don’t have that identity you don’t exist”’ songlines.co.uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaha_Soroor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefaya_(band)
