OneBeat 2016: City You Dreamed

This video features an original song by L.A.-based singer songwriter Rosie Tucker, written during our residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL. The video, filmed by Jacob Blumberg (masonjarmusic.com), illustrates the tension between connection and solitude through improvisational mirroring, and features New Dehli-based singer Tritha Sinha. About the song, Rosie shares:

“I wrote the song entirely in the tiny library loft at ACA, a very nice nook with big windows (and not much to see but foliage). It rained nearly the whole time I was working, and I think that the combination of the greenery, of working so high up in a room full of art books, of the rain that sent everyone indoors and away from each other– I think these conditions gave rise to a weird little song about solitude. I was working alone but in some ways it was still a collaboration because every choice I made was inspired by the work of other OneBeat fellows.

While writing the song I had in mind Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities for its beautiful fantastic language and the tension/paradox evident in each of the little stories. I was sharing the library nook with composer/vocalist Marina Sobyanina (we would take shifts!), and on one rainy night as we traded places I inquired as to what she was working on. To my surprise, she told me she was creating a piece inspired by that same book of stories! I still love the thought of Marina and I separately and coincidentally running through the rain, clutching midi controllers, thinking about Calvino’s impossible places.”
Video and audio by Jacob Blumberg (masonjarmusic.com).