"Brooklyn": On Symbolism, East Coast Hip Hop, and Electric Guitar

As the United States recoils from hyper-partisan tension and a global pandemic, I have been reflecting on my time in Los Angeles. Last year, I wrote an instrumental inspired by east coast hip hop, transcendence, and prayer. It feels relevant today. Here is what I wrote last year:

"Sometimes I think I know what I'm going to say when I write or make art. Then I realize I have no idea and figure it out in the process. Originally this music and video were inspired by east coast hip hop. But I went outside to capture some city footage during the week (it was rainy) and I ended up dwelling on bigger things. Someone in my building jumped about a week ago. I didn't know him. But I know he was young. This video was somehow a way of working through reflections on it. It ended up being about memories, texture, how moonlight can look like daylight, how the infinite can feel finite. I stole from the French Symbolist poet Apollinaire (it's hidden in there)... How the impressions left on our senses are sometimes fleeting, sometimes lasting. It's in memory to those who've left too young, and a kiss to everyone (who's) left. 'Les astres assez bien figurent les abeilles / De ce miel lumineux qui degoutte des treilles / Car voici que tout doux et leur tombant du ciel / Chaque rayon de lune est un rayon de miel' - Guillaume Apollinaire"

You can watch the music video here. I was inspired by film, light exposure, Cherokee belief in the sacred eagle, and the Symbolist movement as mentioned above. I also unintentionally seem to have echoed Michael Jackson's cinematography in Billie Jean (the light up sidewalks).

I love how visual art and audio can blend together. I intend to explore this further (as I have also been reflecting on graffiti, Basquiat, and New York in the 80s recently). Sound and light seem one in the same.

Guitar, Arr. by Anja Wade Copyright 2019