The Fireplace Sessions return, with a brand new composition, my friends, entitled ‘Moonrise over Mostar’, which you can view on Facebook here. I’m still learning the piece myself, even though I wrote it, so please appreciate the performance is by no means perfect!

Please like and share if you wish to see the piece one day in a recorded format, it would be very much appreciated. For a little context to the composition, please read on.

Two years ago I stood upon the banks of the Neretva River in Mostar, Bosnia, with a stunning view of the Stari Most (Old Bridge), constructed in the 16th Century by the Ottomans. It was a truly remarkable, idyllic setting, and as the moon rose above the Old City, my imagination ran into overdrive. Earlier that day I had shed tears on numerous occasions whilst visiting the Museum of War and Genocide Victims 1992 – 1995, learning in detail of the killing fields, the concentration camps, the mass graves, the harrowing consequences of the campaigns of ethnic genocide against Bosnian Muslims during the Bosnian War. The horrific images haunted me continuously, guilt set in upon me for enjoying this nocturnal view – this juxtaposition felt uneasy, and I knew I would have to respond to these feelings in the only way I know how, through music. On occasion, it takes much longer to articulate some feelings musically than others, though the images were never far from my mind, plaguing me perpetually as I travelled across the globe, as those from Auschwitz had when I visited ten years before. I finally expressed this uncomfortable juxtaposition through my latest composition written last month and entitled ‘Moonrise Over Mostar’- it seemed better to allow music to paint this troubled history in the picturesque setting rather than song.

Humankind never seems to learn the lessons from history. We are all living in the same world and we should all strive for peace, reconciliation, social and economic justice for every person across the globe regardless of religion, ethnicity, sexuality or gender.

I hope you all enjoy this composition, and I make no apologies for the more serious tone of the message, which seems entirely appropriate at this gravely unsettling moment in world history.

SK x