S IS FOR SYRIA and G IS FOR GOLAN HEIGHTS
Laissez Passer, named so after the French term for documents issued to stateless people, is the last album by Tootard, a band from a village in the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory currently occupied by Israel.
Perhaps because I’m a mutt with large amounts of Ashkenazi and Balkan blood, I have an unquenchable affinity for multi-instrumental music to which you can dance. Tootard—Arabic for strawberry—has lately been my favorite outfit that plays such music. And even though their statelessness is involuntary and I’m a questioning citizen, I wholly relate to this agenda of having to stay human while not officially existing, not being properly defined in the identification papers. Also, Arabic is the most beautiful language in the world, and it pairs superbly with reggae, saxophone, and Tuareg rhythms.
Laissez Passer by TootArd
Released in 2017 by Glitterbeat Records
