A one minute long recording of silence is #1 on the Austrian iTunes chart just days after its Friday release. Recorded by Austrian artists Raoul Haspel, the track “Schweigeminute” (German for Minute’s Silence), the track is designed to draw attention to Europe’s growing refuge crisis.
Proceeds from the track will go to aid refugees stuck in the asylum processing center in Traiskirchen near Vienna.
2,000 refugees have been sleeping in the open there for weeks, enduring high daytime temperatures and rainstorms wrapped only in blankets, according to Reuters. Amnesty International last week called their treatment “scandalous”.
“We have a huge humanitarian problem… babies have been born outside in a city with some of the best healthcare in the world,” Haspel told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “I chose silence because everybody has such a strong opinion on the situation, and the debate just gets louder and louder each time… arguments and protests are not being heard anymore, people are becoming fed up and not paying attention as before.”
The track is available on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play.
