Tunisian-born / New York-based experimental singer Emel Mathlouthi announces the release of her new album ‘Everywhere We Looked Was Burning’ via Partisan Records (IDLES, Fontaines D.C., Cigarettes After Sex).

For the first time Emel sings almost entirely in English after previously only recording a handful of tracks in the language. The choice was informed by settling in New York with her family, discovering the ‘essential imagery’ of poets Rainer Maria Rilke, T.S. Elliot and John Ashbury and “thinking back to how music in English was so important to me growing up.” She initially rented a house in Woodstock, NY and set off to “write about nature as well as the beauty and struggle of these times.”

Emel rose to fame after a video of her performing her song ‘Kelmti Horra (My Word Is Free)’ generated millions of views throughout the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. That song served as the anthem for the Arab Spring, gave its name to her debut album ‘Kelmti Horra’ and took her to the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Concert, where she performed it to thunderous applause.

“The Tunisian protest singer wields her commanding, gothic voice over grave beats and starkly forbidding strings, creating an atmosphere of suspense and peril” – The Guardian