Kefaya & Elaha Soroor Release New Album “OUR FREEDOMS MUST BE WON - AZADI KHO BIGRI”

Award-winning musical collaborators Kefaya & Elaha Soroor present their new album, Our Freedoms Must Be Won - Azadi Kho Bigri, out now via Radio International / Absolute. Including the focus track "A Bright Gaze - Negahe Roshan".

Marking their most ambitious and politically urgent collaboration to date, Our Freedoms Must Be Won presents a powerful statement on collective freedom, resistance and solidarity. Rooted in lived experiences of exile, migration and community. The album is both a call to action and a celebration of the special connections that are forged through struggle. Included with the album's release is the new focus track, "A Bright Gaze - Negahe Roshan" - a blend of the old and new, the song rises as one of the album's most uplifting moments, capturing the spirit of collective resilience at the heart of Our Freedoms Must Be Won.

Speaking on the single the band share: “The lyrical content of this song was inspired by a 2024 event celebrating Hazara culture in Austria, involving Elaha Soroor and members of Kefaya, where posters across Vienna were torn down in what felt like an attempt to silence the performance. Rather than dwell on hostility, the track focuses on what followed: solidarity, unexpected friendship, and the forging of allies in difficult circumstances. Built around a traditional 7/8 Afghan folk rhythm and reimagined within a synth-rock framework, it features guitar melodies with folk and blues inflections layered over a lush analogue synth bed, while soaring synth lines answer the vocals in a call-and-response fashion. Developed through improvisation, the track stands as one of the album’s most immediate and engaging songs.”

Listen to Our Freedoms Must Be Won HERE

Our Freedoms Must Be Won is restless, searching, alive with tension. Kefaya’s signature fusion of interlocking polyrhythms, immersive electronics, and trance-inducing grooves creates a sound world that feels both ancient and immediate.

The album's grooves are communal by design, built for bodies moving together. Its lyrics insist on shared responsibility. Its sound refuses borders.

Our Freedoms Must Be Won does not flinch from naming what it sees:

"We are living through a moment where systems of power are visibly under strain and maintaining hegemony increasingly takes authoritarian and fascistic forms that attempt to divide and alienate communities. War, genocide, displacement and mass violence are not exceptions to this system, but part of how it maintains and protects itself. The album speaks of exile, migration and separation, of resistance and survival, and of the collective responsibility it takes to keep moving through all of that. Freedom here is not abstract. It is collective, fragile, and it must be won."

Our Freedoms Must Be Won follows their critically acclaimed album Songs of Our Mothers (Bella Union), which won the 2020 Songlines Award for Best Fusion Album, and continues the band's mission to push the boundaries of global music.

Kefaya is the London-based trio of Giuliano Modarelli, Al MacSween, and Joost Hendrickx, known for their boundary-breaking approach to global sounds, jazz, and socially conscious music. They reunite here with Elaha Soroor, a pioneering Hazara singer whose voice conveys both profound emotional depth and unflinching power. Soroor rose to prominence as a finalist on Afghanistan's Afghan Star and made history as the first female Hazara singer to perform on Afghan television. She has since appeared on BBC Farsi, Al Jazeera, and numerous Persian media outlets.

Kefaya & Elaha Soroor will bring Our Freedoms Must Be Won – Azadi Kho Bigri to the stage for a headline London show on September 20th at The Lower Third - their first major live presentation of the album in full. The band will also tour in the UK and Europe in July and September

Kefaya & Elaha Soroor will headline a London show on September 20th at The Lower Third, performing their album Our Freedoms Must Be Won – Azadi Kho Bigri live in full for the first time. The performance kicks off a wider UK and European tour running through July and September.

TOUR DATES:

• July 24th Gent, Belgium - Trefpunt 2026
• July 28th Thun, Switzerland - Am Schluss 2026
• Sep 4th Hamburg, Germany - Hastam Festival
• Sep 10th Trondheim, Norway - Transform – Trondheim World Festival
• Sep 18th Gateshead, UK - The Glasshouse, Presented by GemArts
• Sep 20th London, UK - The Lower Third - London Show Tickets & Bundles here
• Sep 23th Leeds, UK - Highpark Bookclub,
• Sep 24th Sheffield, UK - Sheffield University
• Sep 25th Bristol, UK - Kefaya & Elaha Soroor album launch
• Sep 28th Bristol, UK - The Jam Jar
• Oct 24th Whitby, UK - Musicport Festival 2026

Our Freedoms Must Be Won Tracklist:

1. Our Freedoms Must Be Won – Azadi Kho Bigri

2. A Bright Gaze – Negahe Roshan

3. The Game – Bazi

4. I Ran & Ran (Leaving Crumbs) – Davidam

5. Coo of the Pigeon, Song of the Willow – Cococo Barge Chenar

6. Cold & Heavy – Sardo Sangin

7. Masoma (intro)

8. Masoma

9. The Snail – Halazon

10. A Modest Wish – Arezoie Kochak

ABOUT KEFAYA & ELAHA SOROOR

Kefaya & Elaha Soroor have cultivated an international following through live performance, collaboration, and word of mouth rather than major-label promotion. Their music has surpassed 2.5 million streams, with audiences expanding across Europe and beyond. Their online presence includes over 14,000 Spotify listeners, 13,000 Facebook followers, and more than 91,000 Instagram followers on Elaha’s personal account.

Their work has been supported by leading broadcasters and tastemakers, including sync placement on Channel 4’s We Are Lady Parts, live sessions on BBC Radio 3 (World on 3) and BBC Radio 4 (Loose Ends), and airplay from Gilles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs, Worldwide FM, and NTS. Their releases have earned four- and five-star reviews from The Guardian, Uncut, Mojo, Financial Times, Songlines, Jazzwise, Evening Standard, and Times of India.

Fierce, innovative, and unapologetically political, Kefaya & Elaha Soroor continue to carve out a space where artistic experimentation meets revolutionary spirit—proving that music is not only a form of expression but also a catalyst for change.