The Music. The Film.
Quimeras is the first piece featured in Marietta Veulens’ Pasiones Y Rituales Album. What does Quimeras mean in Spanish? Chimera, Mirage, Illusion, Delusion…
Whilst listening to Quimeras, I am transported by the music to a far distant dimension. Time and space acquire a warmth that envelopes me, and I embark on a voyage through music, rhythm, sensations and feelings. It is the vibrant and unique melody one can only experience when listening to Cuban music.
It is the diversity - which breaks any barrier between classical, contemporary, popular/folkloric, jazz or minimalist music - that strikes me, whilst listening to Marietta Veulens’ music. A pure sonic reflection of multiculturalism.
Encuentros, the second piece of this album, embodies this same multiculturalism as the meaning of the title tells: encounters, meetings, get-togethers. Yet, it also means “matches”, “games”, which can take on a double meaning, if referred to dating.
It is the unlimited extension of variety which is pleasing to my ears and senses, whilst listening to this album from one song to the next.
Before writing this article, I decided not to deepen my knowledge on Marietta Veulens’ life and professional journey, so that her music alone would feed me sensations, feelings, inspiration, and give me a picture of Marietta - the Cuban woman and musician.
Brought up as she was in the heart of Matanzas, in a home from which Marietta’s family ran a music academy, says enough on how Afro-Cuban and classical European music are rooted in this experimentally adventurous, accomplished musician.
Moving to La Habana to study contemporary music and composition, weaving contacts and discoveries with actors, dancers and other musicians, profoundly affected Marietta’s life and work.
For Marrietta, composing and directing music with Flora Lauten and her experimental theatre company - Teatro Buendía - meant opening up to performing in both Latin America and Europe.
London became a cradle for Marietta’s creativity expressed in prestigious venues, such as Queen Elizabeth’s Hall, Riverside Studios, The Purcell Room and Ronnie Scotts.
Pasiones and Rituales is Marietta’s life journey, which took the artist twenty years to complete. The life journey of one woman’s creativity - on a quest to find her unique musical voice, and to seek alternative ways of expression outside classical traditions - is beautifully depicted in the feature length documentary MARIETTA, directed by Olivia Emes.
Sound, sight, words all merge in creativity flowing and melting talents, which awake deep sensations in both the listener and the viewer alike.
Winnie Productions has encapsulated Marietta’s life history and work, representing the different perspective the Cuban artist developed, evolved and matured of her own country and culture.
Bravo! To this creative collaboration made by women committed to crossing and amplifying a multicultural vision of life, music, images, colours, passions, experiences and authenticity in the story-telling.
The premier of the film will be presented at Fabrica in Brighton, England, UK on Friday, 25th November. ’22 at 7:45pm. Tickets: Eventbrite.
MARIETTA is available for streaming on iTunes, GooglePlay US and Canada, and it will be available for viewing in cinemas across England.