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11 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 JANUARY 2025 grooved to Gaddafi's beat album together, with financial aid from Libya, titled 'L'epoca Del Popolo'. This album was recorded in Catania, and the two had the time of their lives. "It was a holiday!" Renato re- called fondly. "We finished everything in a day," Mallia said. "We came prepared, so every time they called asking if we were ready yet, we would tell them not yet, and we'd explore Sicily." At least 15 albums were re- corded by Maltese artists under Libya's patronage with songs in English, Maltese and Italian. Investing in Malta's music scene This music recording experi- ence was not just a side-oppor- tunity for Maltese artists at the time. Rather, it paved the way for stronger investments in the music scene at the time. One of the most significant invest- ments was at Smash Record- ings. Joe Baldacchino, the man- aging director at Smash, told MaltaToday that many of the Libya-funded albums were re- corded at their studios back in the day after he used his own cash to make significant invest- ments in the studios. "We were going up to Italy to record each album, and if we wanted to record more of these albums, it was going to get too expensive. So, we made some investments in our own stu- dio," he said. Smash Recordings, the prede- cessor to Smash Communica- tions, became the first profes- sional studio in Malta to record international albums. A signifi- cant chunk of the Libyan-fund- ed albums was recorded at the studio, including a rock op- era called The Struggle (think Ġensna, but about Libya). This music project also put more money in the hands of local artists, who were paid Lm300 (around €700 today) for each song, according to Mary Rose Mallia. "It was triple what you would get paid in a hotel," Renato added. Creating an archive Unless you were around to get your hands on one of these albums in the 70s and 80s, the music is hard to find online. Soon, this won't be the case. Rune Agerhus, a Danish schol- ar, is building his own, free- to-use music platform where people will be able to listen to these albums at no cost. His interest in these Mal- tese albums all started when he stumbled upon a couple of tracks from one of the albums online. "I felt immediately drawn to it. It piqued my in- terest like no other political- ly-charged examples of music production had done it for me in a long, long time," he told MaltaToday. He first learned about Leħen il-Ħbiberija u Solidarjeta and the Maltese albums in the spring of 2024. "I quickly there- after began to surf the internet for the individual records to see if any were on sale. Lucky for me, most of them were, and over time I have managed to collect nine out of the original 15." He started to digitise them in May 2024, and is still going at it. "Once I collect a record, I listen to it first to hear how it sounds, and before digitizing the whole record I would also be cleaning the records for dust and scratches, if need be, in or- der to enhance the quality of the playback." When Rune first started writ- ing publicly about his interest in this music and the cata- logue, he was contacted by Ben Coster, who lives in Malta and whose father was a person- al friend of Bayzo. He texted Agerhus with some additional information and helped source most of the records. Coster told MaltaToday his interest in the albums is two- fold. "On the political end, the idea of Libya attempting to strengthen diplomatic ties in Malta by establishing an MoU and bankrolling popular Mal- tese musicians to sing about Ja- mahiriya is fascinating to me," he said. "On the musical side, I genuinely believe that the records, in particular the first one, have some of the most well recorded, creative music to ev- er come out of Malta. Some of the tracks are spectacular both in terms of the instrumenta- tion and vocal performances. Well-engineered too, which was a rarity for Maltese music at that time." Coster also sees a certain ab- surdity to the music albums. "I find it funny and incredi- ble that Mary Rose Mallia and Renato recorded music about Gaddafi's Third International Theory, Arab Unity, anti-colo- nialism, economic nationalism and other similar themes. If you knew their other work, it's really bizarre to think about." For now, the music will be re- leased on Agerhus's own online music streaming service. How- ever, he is in touch with other people to explore a broader, international commercial re- lease to streaming platforms like Spotify. "I think it would be suitable, as the original Radio Voice of Friendship and Solidarity was dedicated to giving the peoples of the third world an uplifting voice to an international audi- ence. Besides my growing Lib- ya/Malta collection, I have also collected songs from Oman, Iraq, and have my eyes set on records from Algeria and Pal- estine." He explained that these al- bums are a reminder that Mal- ta was once considered a non- aligned country after it gained independence from the British empire, pivoting eastward and forging relations with coun- tries like Libya and the DPRK (North Korea). "[Leħen il-Ħbiberija u Soli- darjeta] is very much emblem- atic of Malta's eastward po- litical alignment, and I would argue a testament to its open- ness and its willingness – at the time – to forge such close relationships with states usu- ally considered "rogue" by the West. It's a period in Maltese history I think most people outside the country aren't real- ly all too familiar with." "On the political end, the idea of Libya attempting to strengthen diplomatic ties in Malta by establishing an MoU and bankrolling popular Maltese musicians to sing about Jamahiriya is fascinating to me."