Rising to the Stars with the Cuban Rock Band Anima Mund

Irina Pino

The combination between voices and music is perfect harmony

Anima Mundi in concert in Havana

HAVANA TIMES — On the night of Saturday June 17th, it was one of those Saturdays that I haven’t been scammed by bad movies on TV or sterile experiences. This time I won: I was at a concert of Cuban rock band, Anima Mundi, who were playing at the El ciervo encantado theater.

I was amazed by their performance, these guys are amazing! I hadn’t seen them for years, but I could confirm that their actual work is brilliant, something outstanding in a time of reggaeton and other demons.

They had performed twice before, one at the Hispano-American Culture Center, and the other one at the Fine Arts Museum theater. The three concerts have been recorded to make a live DVD, which they will sell I imagine.

The value of this group lies in the fact that they have managed to get their own label and win international recognition on the progressive rock scene. Similarly, they also take part in important festivals with well-known line-ups. They dabble in symphonic, celtic, folk rock, psychodelic, space rock, jazz and blues.

The combination between voices and music is perfect harmony. This translates in their hard work, as they never schematize and they always take on new challenges.

Roberto Diaz  (director, lead guitar and voice), Virginia Peraza (keyboard and voice), Yarosky Corredera  (bass), Marco Alonso (drums and saxophone), y Michel Bermudez  (voice, acoustic guitar, keyboards and percussion), put on a great performance worthy of a great stage.

And you have to ask yourself: why aren’t their spaces for music like this? It’s difficult but not impossible to provide venues for people who enjoy experimental music, when what is played the most violates our ears every day.

There aren’t enough words to describe the songs: Flowers, Rubicon, The Chimney The Wheel and the War, Artful Device Maker, Nine Swans, Infinitum, Clock Work Heart, Train to the Future, Time to Understand, Lone Rider, and above all, Somewhere and Endless Star, managed to take me to the stars.

Their team work was appreciated: the lighting design, the impeccable acoustics, the dancer, the projection of images, which made up a symbiosis because of their strangeness, but which went perfectly with the music.

Everything was artistically executed for it to be a success. The only debatable thing was that if it hadn’t been a theater, many people would have danced, as there are songs which invite people to dance and they do with pure emotion.

Listening to these amazing songs is a complex experience, some seem to come from inner worlds; others, for their effect, give the impression that we are walking on the face of the moon or discovering unknown galaxies. Things to see and feel in music; all you need is enough imagination. Songs of angels? Those too.

So, what’s left to do? Go back and enjoy Anima Mundi’s concerts, and of course, be able to buy their albums.

Irina Pino

Irina Pino: I was born in the middle of shortages in those sixties that marked so many patterns in the world. Although I currently live in Miramar, I miss the city center with its cinemas and theaters, and the bohemian atmosphere of Old Havana, where I often go. Writing is the essential thing in my life, be it poetry, fiction or articles, a communion of ideas that identifies me. With my family and my friends, I get my share of happiness.