Massive Attack explore Guantanemo Bay sound torture with “Saturday Come Slow” video

[via Pitchfork / Feeder]

The visual accompaniment for the latest release from Massive Attack’s recent album Heligoland is far from the standard fare in terms of music videos. Backed by zero dB, “Saturday Come Slow” is a short film that touches on the inhumane practice of using sound as a means of torture; in this case, a practice which was used in collaboration with other “techniques” at Guantanemo Bay.

This short film by renowned photographers Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin featuring Ruhal Ahmed, is a meditation on the former detainee’s experience in Guantanemo Bay. For a period of two and a half years he was repeatedly questioned by military staff at the Cuban base, where his interrogators would often play loud music to him repeatedly at high volume, as a form of torture. The film also explores the use of sound on the human body, for both pleasure and pain. It’s a poignant, powerful, timely and emotive piece of work.

The opening statement when entering zero dB’s website reads as painful and cruel as the first-hand description in the video itself, “Throughout the world, music is being used as a form of psychological torture. Help us bring this brutal practice to an end. Join our silent protest.”

In remembering instances when such methods were broadcast to the public in the past, they were typically given an almost comical twist: Ulrich Blasts Military For Blasting Metallica At Prisoners, for instance. As with much of life however, it appears that the dark side of reality is far more frightening and harsh that one could ever imagine.

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