Arema Arega has not had it easy. She decided to base her career on a system of sound codes governed by exploration, with elements of The electronic, the Jazz and trip hop, a universe born in the shadows of Bristol that has patented its own icons and has radiated its influence throughout the world.
Arega has had the courage to shape his personal stamp in an expansive environment dominated by machines and sound imbrications; a cosmopolitan setting in which it is extremely difficult to enter successfully and seal victory.
Of a Cuban mother and an Ethiopian father, Arema Arega was born in 1979 in the Russian city of Voronezh. Her work began to gain visibility thanks to her participation in the albums Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura, along with other Cuban artists. The British DJ himself described his work as a discovery.
“I came across Arema’s music through Havana Cultura, an initiative dedicated to promoting authentic Cuban culture. We collaborated on ‘Havana Cultura: The Search Continues’ and I was blown away by her vocal delivery and songwriting. An amazing talent,” Peterson said.
After several years of a career as a singer-songwriter and music producer, the Cuban continues to take sounds from here and there, determined to outline her own path. Based in Barcelona, in her creative route she has gone through tributaries based on eclecticism and trans-territoriality.
Along with her musical proposal, Arema has displayed a body of work as a painter, designer and illustrator; creative exercises that blend naturally into the roots of her conceptual discourses and that show the artist that she is today.
His name has barely been heard in Cuba. His songs have remained on the circuit more underground and they have fueled the searches of music lovers interested in peculiar and alternative proposals of contemporary Cuban music.
Arema has recorded albums like The red soundtracks and Do it, two remarkable albums designed for a film that has been spinning inside her imagination, according to the artist herself. These are well-achieved productions, but whose promotion was reduced to a minimum within Cuba. The first of them is, in my opinion, one of her most accomplished works, due to the notable interweaving of the languages of jazz, electronics and the profuse exchanges with trip hop.
In 2022 Arema published its most recent production, In the night (Everything is magical)with which he radicalizes his proposal regarding the fusion of electronics, the dream of trip hop, the folk and elements of the call world music.
Made up of nine tracks, the disc puts us in front of an artist who puts all the meat on the grill to define a style. She has as her strengths the power of her voice to move within the genres that go hand in hand in her sound mix.
His proposal, although it is related to that of other international musicians, outlines the horizons of an artist in conflict with herself in pursuit of originality. Proof of this is the song “Imagine the Moon”, which begins the album and serves as a preview of what is to come.
The second song, “In the Night”, opens the door wide to the most prolific world of the artist. Arema does not save anything, in its eagerness to conquer new spaces. She can insert herself among the Cuban musical avant-garde without too much difficulty, go beyond the island’s borders and, at the same time, place herself above the commercial demands of the industry, an interest that she shares with other artists born on the island, Danay Suárez.
The album can be heard as a kind of dream. Arema offers versions of “In the Night” that are listenable due to the sound mix and the final result. This is the case, for example, of the instrumental version of the song, one of the most memorable installments of the album that transports the listener to an expansive world in which the artist moves like a fish in water.
Arema’s voice is her great strength. She has demonstrated it in previous productions in which she brilliantly assumes the vocal interpretation of jazz and other genres. On this album, she confirms herself again as one of his trump cards. The versions show it. a cappella from “Imagine the Moon” and “In the Night”, which show the strength and possibilities of her throat.
On the album, Arema revolves around her own themes with different levels of interpretation and sound incorporations. She does it as if she is breaking down the sounds that surface in her mind.
We see (or hear) them delineate variations on their themes, self-contained versions in which their dream worlds and turbulence can be perceived. But, above all, her music reveals her proven commitment to reach, at some crossroads, the “Arema Arega sound”, and achieve it without dying in the attempt.
