Socio-Political Powerhouse: War Women of Kosovo's "A Lifetime Isn't Long Enough" Digitally Drops on Friday, 4 Feb 2022

All proceeds benefit the women of Kosovo involved in the creation of the evocative album "A Lifetime Isn't Long Enough."

​This is what hatred brings. This is what war has wrought.

A minimum of 800,000 out of less than two-million citizens were made refugees during the Kosovo war— nearly half the country turned homeless, with women systematically subjected to rape by Serbian soldiers in what the UN tribunal later charged as genocide and crimes against humanity.

The War Women of Kosovo collective is composed of women singing publicly and writing songs for the first time. Many of them had never left their villages, even to visit the small city ten-minutes drive away. All names and faces have been kept confidential per the artists' wishes.

As they have done over the past decade with over thirty-six records from countries such as Rwanda, South Sudan, Comoros, Vietnam, and Romania, Grammy-winning producer & author Ian Brennan, and Italian-Rwandan photographer & filmmaker Marilena Umuhoza Delli present "A Lifetime Isn't Long Enough."
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Streams are available starting Friday, 4 February 2022 by visiting, https://soundcloud.com/user9981180/sets/war-women-of-kosovo-a-lifetime-isnt-long-enough/s-BoKxlQNPQe1?si=7cb46e5fc4a64240a4d8ed66c014cdd8&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

The duo’s goal is to help provide a platform for underrepresented populations, languages, and regions, emphasizing women, the elderly, and persecuted groups.

Interested media who wish to interview "A Lifetime Isn't Long Enough" executive producer Marilena Umuhoza Delli contact WORKHOUSE, CEO Adam Nelson via [email protected]

The Kosovan community is particularly near to the producers’ hearts. Marilena's only two living Rwandan relatives were born of genocidal rape. And at age twenty-one, Brennan's life was irreversibly impacted by the sexual assault and near murder of a loved one.

"The women have found solace in building a community around their shared experiences and the healing provided by telling their stories.

"These women are heroes— not for what they have suffered, but for the strength that they've demonstrated in overcoming it. They are role models in courage and resilience," said Marilena Umuhoza Delli.

"The women's courageousness is evident in their music-making. Using found elements from their immediate environments— such as tea glasses, stovepipes, and combs— have produced incredibly singular and harrowing sonic expressions. All were first-time singers and songwriters, but they possess some of the most uniquely textured and honest voices that I have ever heard," states Ian Brennan.

Quelling fears that sharing these stories might reopen wounds; instead, they recurrently stated, "We get strength from you listening to our stories. You give us courage."

The final track on the album, "Every Voice Raised," features every woman telling their story simultaneously— a mass plea for these crimes not to be forgotten or minimized, for history to not inevitably repeat.

Time may heal all wounds. But with some injuries, a lifetime isn't long enough.

Trigger warning: this album contains graphic accounts of sexual assault and genocide.

"A Lifetime Isn't Long Enough" was produced, engineered & mixed by Ian Brennan. All photos & video by executive producer: Marilena Umuhoza Delli. Recorded throughout Kosovo.

In less than a decade and without any corporate media or governmental support, Grammy-winning producer and author Ian Brennan, has quietly amassed one of the largest bodies of field recordings in history, producing more than thirty albums from under-represented populations and regions around the world (Rwanda, South Sudan, Romania, Ukerewe Island, Vietnam, et al.), helping give voice to the voiceless.

His most notable work may be with the prisoners at the maximum-security Zomba Prison that resulted in an unexpected Grammy nomination (the first-ever for an artist from the country of Malawi) in 2016. The project was featured worldwide, including on the front page of the New York Times, PBS television, Rolling Stone, and in an Emmy-winning segment of "60 Minutes" with Anderson Cooper reporting. Brennan has published seven books on violence prevention, trauma, racism, and international inequity in media representation, including his newest, Muse-$ick: a music manifesto in fifty-nine notes.