Chain of Keys

Album: The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Hope Six Demolition Project album was inspired by P.J. Harvey's trips to Washington, DC, Kosovo and Afghanistan with photographer Seamus Murphy. In Bogushevci, Kosovo, they met Zagorka, the elderly gatekeeper of the village, who still carries a ring of keys to the houses of her long-disappeared neighbors.

    Speaking to Uncut, Murphy recalled two memories of the abandoned village :"There were plums that had fallen from the tree and were left in the heat to rot. Flies buzzing round them. We'd seen a lot of stuff. There were two things that struck me when I left. The plums and the woman (Zagorka) walking with the keys behind her back."

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