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Ask Cuban
singer YUSA,
“Can you live without love?”, and she’ll tell you,
“Yes, you can but I’m not sure it would have any meaning.” And
so for her third album she offers us Haiku
– a collection of intimista
songs. Working with Brazilian producer Alę Siqueira the soundscape is a
subtle
celebration of the rich cultural links between Brazil
and Cuba.
As Yusa sings in Conga
Pasajera (Passing
Conga): anda…
canta… salta… baila
… walk…sing… leap… dance!
Track
Listing:
| 1.
Haiku de Paz (2:08) |
7.
Tanto de mí (2:47) |
| 2.
Walking Heads (4:23) |
8.
Mínimum (2:22) |
| 3.
No tengo otro lugar (4:34) |
9.
Sirvió de Algo? (3:40) |
| 4.
Y te apareces (3:27) |
10.
Gente Simple (7:08) |
| 5.
Conga pasajera (3:09) |
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| 6.
París, Muy Bien (3:58) |
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Haiku
– Yusa describes her third album as intimista, each song an emotional
snapshot of the inner world of the heart, like a butterfly momentarily
caught, its wings still fluttering.
And Yusa’s songs are
imbued with the spirit of haiku, that minimal Japanese poetic form
popular worldwide. In the words of Mexican poet Octavia
Paz, a haiku is, “A poetic experience re-created as lived poetry.” And
so Yusa - her name itself as evocative as a haiku - worked
intense yet playful afternoons and evenings in the studio with
Brazilian producer Alę Siqueira to “Amar un sueńo, parar un hijo”
(“Bring to life a dream, birth a child”).
For Yusa, Alę
Siqueira is the mago magician who climbed inside her songs with
her, bringing out their fragile mystery with luminous delicate
detail. The sound is kept personal with Yusa playing many of the
instruments herself (bass, Cuban tres guitar, Fender Rhodes,
percussion) inviting in friends and collaborators to add glimmering
threads into the magical weave.
The title song Haiku de paz
(Peace Haiku), which has Carlos, Eme and Michael of pioneering
Afro-Cuban rock group Síntesis singing the textured chorus, is for
Obatalá, the Afro-Cuban orisha deity of purity and dream. Walking
Heads, in which Yusa sings gently in English touches feelings often
easier to express in a foreign language in which one has no fear of the
meaning of the words. No tengo otro lugar (I Have No
Other Place) is another way of saying how much one can love someone,
while Y te aparece (Suddenly You Appear) came to Yusa to, “Accompany my
insomnia.”
Conga Pasajera (Passing Conga) intertwines
love and life in the joyful spirit of Carnival. París Muy Bien (Paris
Is Good) explores the awareness that however hard feelings can be, it’s
a question of choice whether they get worse or better. Mínimum, pared
down to essentials, encapsulates the distilled heart of the
album. Tanto de mí (So Much Of Me) touches on how it is to feel
the indescribable; while Sirvió de algo? (Was It Useful?), embeds
itself in questions of doubt. ‘Gente simple’ (Just People), about the
immensity of life itself was recorded on Yusa’s birthday, a day
complete with cake, masks, false noses, and balloons!
For
Yusa, for a song to be sincere, “It’s always going to be the result of
a journey into the interior of oneself. You only live your own life so
everything is the result of what one has lived.” A haiku of songs
about the viscidities of life and the precarious world of the
senses. Ask Yusa, “Can you live without love?”, and she’ll tell
you, “Yes, you can, but I’m not sure it would have any
meaning.”
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Copyright
© 2003 Tumi Music Limited, http://www.tumimusic.com
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