R&b
Desire Marea speaks his truth. A staunch futurist with deep roots in his heritage, he seems able to blend vast areas of the past with the possibilities of tomorrow. The South African artist’s solo debut came in 2020, but he’s ready for another leap forwards.
In the time following this, he trained as a sangoma, a traditional Nguni spiritual healer. The experience opened up huge swathes of his imagination, pushing his work to places he could never have imagined. Desire comments…
“In my work as a sangoma, ancient songs and drumming sequences are used to invoke spirits who live in me so I enter into a trance state. In my work as a musician, I heal people using music. It’s a different kind of medicine but one in which I often have to channel different spirits, different truths and the essence of light.”
New album ‘On The Romance Of Being’ is out on April 7th, and it’s led by the powerful, expressive statement ‘Be Free’. A Declaration of Independence, it finds Desire Marea revelling in the present, a discussion of masculinity, sexuality, and how his identity can be rooted within his heritage.
Reclaiming his roots, ‘Be Free’ is an inspired statement, a work of real bravery and staunch creativity. Discussing the single, Desire says…
“One of my heroes, Marlon Riggs, said “Black men loving black men is THE revolutionary act”. Be Free is a love story about two black men loving each other through the crisis of masculinity. It’s set in South Africa’s hypermasculine world of taxi gangs, one of the many places where gay men exist often under a layer of oppression that’s in addition to the homophobic violence of the world at large.
It was important for me to tell this story because love, even under such conditions, is always a story worth telling. And freedom is always something worth fighting for. I am grateful to the team and to Imraan for the passion, care and nuance he gave to this story.
The purring percussive interplay leads to that scintillating vocal, all topped off by visuals constructed by acclaimed film maker Imraan Christian. The director adds:
When Desire reached out to me about creating a film together, I was overjoyed as I’ve always found his work to be at the forefront of creativity. He told me about the story he had written and it resonated with me deeply as I’ve lost a loved one recently to the struggles of addiction and love.
There was something universal in Desire’s writing and my intention was then to bring a strong emotional and cinematic approach to making the film.
A truly astonishing piece of music, you can check it out below.
Photo Credit: Tatenda Chidora
