Desire Marea, On the Romance of Being ★★★★☆
South African artist Desire Marea believes in spiritual healing and the power of music to invoke elements of the ancient, transcendent and incandescent. On their second album On the Romance of Being, the Amandawe-based artist continues to venture into more complex territory than their debut of 2020.
“Levitate, levitate, levitate,” croons Marea like a plea, a mantra, or yearning prayer on opening track Ezulwini. The jazzy, restrained instrumentals gradually swirl into a fuzz-drenched eddy of percussive, pattering sound. This sense of intimacy and improvisation resulted from an ensemble of 13 accomplished jazz and experimental musicians whose first take often made it to the final recording.
The overarching mood of the album teeters between romantic melancholia and a fierce determination to channel into a higher, spiritual realm. Restless, exploratory jazz percussion invites meandering sax, modular synths and a swell of gospel-style harmonies. Marea’s deep, espresso-rich tenor recalls ANOHNI or Nakhane in its almost operatic, classical beauty.
One of the most heartrendingly, purely ethereal ballads in which time evaporates is the divine Rah featuring Zoë Modiga. The brassy patter of cymbals and deep twang of bass tip toe reverently around her powerful voice.
In Be Free, Marea alternately castigates and laments an ex-lover for the shame over his sexuality that kept him a prisoner in his own life. Here, and consistently throughout, desire, lust and sensuality all express their primal, evocative nuances through delicate string arrangements, unapologetic and hallowed choral refrains, brassy trombone, trumpet, and ceremonial drumming.
In Banzi, brassy trombone, wild horns and a cacophony of voices combine into a frenzy of ad lib jazz. There’s a misanthropic madness, an ethereal magnetism to Marea’s sonic landscape that is – well, magic. I unwittingly committed myself to listening to the first track and, captivated, couldn’t move until the final seconds faded out. It’s a journey in which you don’t need to know the words: this music is a licence to feel without prejudice. Like prayers or poetry, the potency is in the cadence, the rhythms, and the stirring of memory and imagination. Cat Woods
