First Single in the Open Arms Project: [ Ссылка ]
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The first two singles/music videos in Oran Etkin's Open Arms Project, Retirantes (April 17) and É Doce Morrer No Mar (May 22), feature guitarist Davi Mello and renowned Brazilian singer and flutist Danilo Caymmi. They are composed by and pay homage to Danilo’s father, Brazil’s legendary songwriter Dorival Caymmi. Born in 1914, Dorival Caymmi captured the spirit of his native Bahia region of Brazil and inspired a great lineage of Bahia-born musicians, from Caetano Veloso to Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa. The first song, Retirantes is based on the African-derived Ijexá rhythm prevalent in Bahia, with Mello’s guitar incorporating the traditional drum patterns. Danilo’s flutes (he plays two traditional flutes at once) and Etkin’s clarinet dance together in intertwining rhythmic patterns. The second song, É Doce Morrer No Mar (How Sweet To Die In The Ocean) speaks of a sailor dying in the lap of Iemanja (the Orisha of the ocean). Etkin starts the song in the sweet low register of the clarinet and as Caymmi enters, the clarinet and voice continue in dialogue like the ocean and the sailor, rising in energy until the climax in Etkin’s solo, before going back into the sweet depths to end the song.

“Open Arms to me is an attitude”, reflects Etkin. “It’s felt in the warmth with which I was greeted in each country and how we welcomed each other into our musical worlds. It is at the core of how we approach making new music together with open ears, unafraid to discover a new side of ourselves outside our comfort zone. And it’s also an answer to the rigid isolation of hate and fear that has been growing in the political discourse all around the world, in almost every country I’ve traveled to.” Now as over half of the world’s population is under stay-at-home orders, often unable to even embrace their loved ones with open arms, this soulful musical call for a new approach to how we relate to each other seems even more prescient and relevant to our current times.

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