It all started last June when, reporting on the liberation of Mosul, Belgian journalist Rudi Vranckx met Nabeel Atraqchi, a 50-year-old teacher who owned a music school in the infamous Iraqi city. Yes, had. Until ISIS violently marked its presence in the region. Because the terrorists consider music a sinful act, they destroyed the school, persecuted the musicians, and destroyed all of their instruments. Except for two guitars, which were saved thanks to Atraqchi’s idea to bury them in the back of his garden.
After the city was liberated, Nabeel reopened his music school. But the only instruments he could use to express himself were the two guitars. When the journalist visited the ruined academy, he was impressed to see Nabeel and his pupil play a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” on the guitars that successfully survived ISIS’s rage.
The teacher’s strength and determination to find the courage to keep going despite what happened to him and other residents of Mosul caught the attention and admiration of the Belgian journalist. Inspired by Lennon’s song that Nabeel played during their meeting, Rudi started the “Imagine Mosul” campaign, a project through which he kindly asked Belgians to donate their spare musical instruments and give them a chance to find a new identity and meaning in Mosul.
Rudi kept his promise and returned to the Iraqi city to donate the musical instruments at the beginning of September last year. The campaign achieved tremendous success so, the journalist, together with television channel Canvas, Belgian advertising agency mortierbrigade, and sound studio RayGun, embarked on a new musical journey, dubbed “Imagine Home.”
The honorable initiative is dedicated to young refugees who, because of terror, were forced to leave their homes and look for a new beginning elsewhere than in Iraq. In the search for a brighter feature, some of them settled in Belgium, where they hope to find the strength they need for a fresh start. To support them, the journalist, who has already touched so many hearts, continued his mission to heal refugees’ wounds via outstanding acoustic experience.
Music is a symbol of unity, hope, and involvement. It represents Rudi’s weapon of choice against terrorism and, at the same time, a tool through which he aims to make refugees feel more like home in Belgium. That’s why, through this project, the journalist and the TV channel ask people all over the world to donate a note and join forces to bring music back to the lives of those who need it most.
The initiative is hosted by a webpage where users can buy, note by note and sound by sound, a music composition that was born out of a heavenly collaboration between a Belgian composer and young refugees and musicians from Mosul.
With each donation placed, the site reveals the sound of a new note. As the financial contributions keep piling up, the acoustic assembly starts to take shape. Still, the notes can be enjoyed as a whole only when the ‘Imagine Home’ composition is fully paid for.
“This project was really challenging. After recording over 20 different instruments in the studio, we had to identify and isolate each note so we could put them in the score separately and allow users to buy them one by one. All in all, we isolated almost 5000 notes to compose the track in its entirety,” said mortierbrigade’s Digital Director, Pieter Nijs.
The minimum price for a note is €5, but feel free to donate as much as you want. The money collected from the donations will go to The Sound of Home, an NGO that gives young refugees in Belgium a chance to express themselves through instruments and take on music lessons.
“Music is the language of the world. Thanks, friends from Belgium, that you brought life back to Mosul,” said Nabeel Atraqchi.