Là refers to Là-bas, the 2006 film by Belgian-Jewish director Chantal Akerman (1950-2015), in which Akerman expressed her ambivalent relations with the Israeli state, especially its settler-colonial narrative. Phonetically, Là (meaning ‘there’ in French) means different things in Arabic and Hebrew. In Arabic, لا means no (the negation of hegemonic narratives on the land). In Hebrew, לה means for her (a tribute or a sort of offering to Chantal Akerman).
The album Là is an immersive, politically charged electro-acoustic sound art or a sonic journey. It is a lament for the Al Naqab/Negev desert in Israel-Palestine and its discriminated and oppressed native Bedouin inhabitants.
