Two members of Pussy Riot, the Russian activist group, have made their first foray into English-language protest music, with the help of a who’s who of indie rockers. In a video released Wednesday for a song called “I Can’t Breathe,” Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who were jailed for protesting in Russia, are buried in black dirt, while wearing Russian police uniforms. Their collaborators on the song, made in memory of Eric Garner and using his last words as its title and closing lyrics, include Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow, as well as two Russian acts, Scofferlane and Jack Wood, which supplied the vocals (“It’s getting dark, New York City/I need to catch my breath”). Richard Hell, the punk musician and writer, reads out Mr. Garner’s last words.
“This song is for Eric and for all those from Russia to America and around the globe who suffer from state terror — killed, choked, perished because of war and state-sponsored violence of all kinds — for political prisoners and those on the streets fighting for change,” Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Tolokonnikova said in a statement, adding that they stand in solidarity. “We’ve known, on our own skin, what police brutality feels like and we can’t be silent on this issue.”
The track was recorded in December, when Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Tolokonnikova were in New York and joined protests in honor of Mr. Garner, the Staten Island man who died after being put in a chokehold by a police officer, and others who died at the hands of the police. The video was shot as one long take, and Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Tolokonnikova were actually submerged in dirt, a discomfort which they took with their usual brio. “We’re sure that our burial will be a bit of wish-fulfillment for some people out there,” they said in the statement.
A second video, shot by the filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin, a director of the HBO documentary “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer,” features images of the protest and Mr. Garner’s family.
In the statement, the women note that the song is not their usual punk screed. “It’s an industrial ballad,” they said. “Dark and urban. The rhythm and beat of the song is a metaphor of a heartbeat, the beat of a heart before it’s about to stop. The absence of our usual aggressive punk vocals in this song is a reaction to this tragedy.”