Tesseractic songs

Imagine a cube within another cube, where the corners of the inner cube extend to meet the corners of the outer cube. Now, extend this concept into the fourth dimension, where you have an additional set of interconnected cubes extending from the outer cube and creating a movement where the structure folds repeatedly onto itself. This creates a tesseract, a complex structure beyond the grasp of our human symbolic articulation, which is bound by the constraints of three-dimensional understanding. Much like how a three-dimensional entity can only be represented as a shadow on a two-dimensional plane, the tesseract, existing in four dimensions, can only be grasped through the projection of a hologram in our three-dimensional grasp.

For my birthday, I am inventing the category of “tesseractic songs”. “Tesseractic songs”, like the tesseract, are multi-dimensional. They defy conventional structures of narrative and/or sound, unfolding in ways that are not seamlessly linear. They use metaphors to disrupt discursive conventions and to challenge our perception of time and space. They engage the senses beyond our sense of hearing to blow depth into life and into being, within and beyond the temporalities of the body we inhabit. They invite those who dance with them to wit(h)ness the thing thinging and the earth earthing within and around us: the simple fact that everything is “in-between”. They also invite us to question the conventional boundaries of our being: where we end and begin and to widen and wisen up our relationship with language, knowledge, and existence.

I invite you to allow the songs to move you for at least a month before you join me for a zoom session of collectively honouring them with movement and sound. They need to become familiar to you before they can fully unleash their spell when we dance with them collectively on my birthday. Remember to allow the entity songs to cast a spell to take you into a multi-dimensional experience of the sound and movement (aka rhythmic journey) that is their gift. I offer you the translations, but remember that the lyrics are just a small fraction of the experience. Specially if you do not speak Portuguese, you are invited to learn to sing them! or not…

Tesseractic songs 48^th ZOOM birthday party

May 28, 2024, 3-4 PM PDT

https://uvic.zoom.us/j/81094412808pwd=NEdnazhhWW5nYm9KOGlEbWY0WkZMdz09

Marisa Monte is the voice behind all of the songs, except for reconvexo. Her earlier work left a deep mark on my teenage years and served as a point of reconnection as I moved out of Brazil and around the world. However, it wasn’t until the last 8 months, 23 years after leaving, that I (re)discovered her later work. This reunion felt like a precious gift, one that I would like to share with you as I celebrate my 48th birthday away from the lands that shaped the first decades of my current existence. If you cannot come to the party on May 28, just enjoy the songs in the playlist that I created for my family and friends:

Songbook