Anaís Azul: July 2018

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Music Video Release: Listen- Cathartic Conundrum

This is Cathartic Conundrum's first ever music video directed and produced by Rivka Cohen.

Listen came out of a place of helplessness and now manifests itself as a song of empowerment. It's a song of protest that celebrates the activists, the culture workers, the organizers, the immigrants, and all marginalized folks who immediately experienced a real sense of greater oppression as soon as Trump was elected. I wrote it while folks were camping at standing rock and while refugees were being pushed away at immigration control upon the arrival to the U.S. I wrote it while contemplating if Trump was going to invalidate any and all efforts immigrants have made in becoming citizens and deport them (i.e. me back to Peru). He has since proven to do that and much worse.

I had contemplated moving back to Peru to combat the possibilities that my paranoia was instigating in my head. I felt hurt for my undocumented immigrant brother and sisters. I felt for my friend who couldn't pay tuition because Trump was causing inflation of the Mexican peso back home.

The video of Listen filmed and directed by Rivka Cohen captures my understanding of protest. Protest means understanding the way in which history repeats itself and being able to manifest new layers linked to old issues to shine light on the urgency for change. Protest means listening and taking time to understand folks being affected by current and past issues (in this case, folks being affected by the world views Trump was preaching and implementing). Finally, protest means love. It means gathering and building bridges with and between folks whom you've built or aim to build community and understanding.

Listen is about an immigrant who tries to cope with the issues of her country and simultaneously confront them from a place of love. Listen is the song for those who have listened and now need to be heard.

Finally, if you'd like more information about Cathartic Conundrum , check out our website at catharticconundrum.com . We are on Spotify, Bandcamp and all streaming services.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TaqWFHsruQ

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This video was made in association to no record label with no budget. This is a completely independently made project in Boston, MA. We thank all the volunteer artists and activists that made this video possible.
© 2018 Rivka Cohen and Anaís AzulAll rights reserved.

Bio

Peruvian born and California grown composer Anaís Azul has been writing music since 2011 when she was a singer-songwriter and collaborator at BUMP Records in Oakland. In 2012 she became a part of the John Adams Young Composers Program in Berkeley, where she delved into electroacoustic composition as well as chamber writing. Azul now has a B.M in Music Composition and Theory from Boston University and spent a semester abroad studying at the Royal College of Music in London. While at BU, she received the undergraduate departmental award, has been commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Boston and as an arranger for singer-songwriter Meklit Hadero's "Waiting for Earthquakes" in collaboration with the San Francisco Awesome Orchestra. Azul has also been selected in 2015 and 2016 for the New England Score call by the Women Composers Festival of Hartford. For her senior recital she curated and composed a collaborative performance art piece Mundane Delirium where she collaborated with poets, rappers, and improvisers. This past May, the Berkeley High School Band and Orchestra premiered her work Brief Lights to commemorate classmates of hers that died tragic deaths at a young age. Currently, Azul is working on the Boston Trombone Project’s first ever commission. Currently, she is arranging STL GLD’s rap album Torch Song for string quartet in conjunction with a multimedia performance at the Club Oberon in Cambridge. She also sings in Boston based social justice choir Voices21c. Azul can be found performing her original songs in Spanish, English and a mix of the two throughout the Greater Boston Area solo and with her band Cathartic Conundrum. She can also be found playing the melodica at police stations, on the street, at free-improv jams, and at open mics. Azul seeks to build bridges between all forms of music making through improvisation, poetry, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Anaís Azul believes music to be a tool for communication, empowerment, and for finding common ground in a time plagued by war and hate.