East London singer/songwriter Lucia Rivero presents a beautiful and haunting soundscape of quiet yearning and existential malaise in “Winter,” reminding us that it’s not the destination, but the journey — no matter how bumpy, long, and lonely — that really matters.
Stream: “Winter” – Lucia Rivero
Broadly speaking, artists can be split into two categories.
There are those whose artistic vision manifests itself, either from the outset or gradually over time, as an epiphanic and well-defined statement of clear intent. Then there are those artists whose visions appear as glimpses, flickers, moods, feelings, and sparks of insight. Flashbacks of the past, and dreams of the future. A story going backward, or a play with its acts jumbled. For this second artist they have more work ahead of them because before they even manifest their vision into reality they have to understand and translate it, to pluck at the threads, fill in the blanks, and chisel it into definition. With this second artist the vision lives with them because they are part of the vision. Their epiphany is ultimately, that their life is the art.
Lucia Rivero is one of those artists. Traditionally a visual artist, Rivero has always fought against the superficial trappings of modern conceptual art, steadfastly rejecting the narratives those artists weave and the authority they claim as spokespersons of the human condition. Like her love for dance and freeform movement meditation, to Rivero, art is not about a destination, a vision to be chased and executed to perfection. It’s about the journey, and the unexpected and spontaneous places it takes you, for it’s in those twists and turns, in those moments of surprise and uncertainty, we learn new things about ourselves and the world. It is that openness and sense of wonder, the admission that we know little, and we are all simply in on the ride, discovering who we are through openness, vulnerability, and humility.
Rivero eventually moved from visual art to music and applied the same ethos to it. One of experimentation and exploration. In the start of her career, Rivero was given a masterclass in making music with her collaboration with Lawrence Chandler of Bowery Electric. Now embarking on her journey as a solo artist she has taken those lessons and flew with them, expanding on the ideas and style that was started with her and Chandler’s collaboration, Happy Families.
You can hear the trains go by
Do you think they are going far
While we stay here and fall apart?
Brick walls are shaking
Deadly dull the wind is blowing
That’s all there is, all there is
Atwood Magazine is proud to premiering “Winter” from Rivero’s first single from her upcoming album Family Trap, due for release in Autumn. In the video directed by Laura Martinova and following in the tradition of British realism, we see Rivero’s signature heady bass-heavy trap inspired beats produced by Lawrence Chandler form the melancholic backdrop for her longing vocals to light up. We see her embracing her kaleidoscopic creative vision in her blending of diverse genres from avant-pop, classical music, trip-hop, and UK bass where 808s mix with string quartets and introspective narratives flow over evocative instrumentals.
Who are we gonna be?
When this winter grows in me
I’ll be someone I don’t want to be
I’ll pretend I’ll be She
She who will be free
She who will be wild
She will be the woman that I want to be
In the lyrics of the song and the video itself we can hear and see Rivero’s creative manifesto laid bare. Gone is the grand artistic vision, in which the artist has found a universal secret about life and symbolically offers it to the audience from their ivory tower. In “Winter,” Rivero captures the uncertainty of the moment, and the longing for completeness and wholeness. This is reflected in the wistful characters in the video longing to break out of their staid routines and get lost in the freeform movement meditation of 5Rhythms, of which she is a long-time practitioner of.
You can hear the trains go by
Do you think they are going far
While we stay here and fall apart?
Brick walls are shaking
Deadly dull the wind is blowing
That’s all there is, all there is
As well as diving deep, the song’s lyrics often focus on the outside world. On the trains that go by, the brick walls that shake, and the dull wind blowing, for in that moment that is all there is, all that is true and material. And that is enough. The mystery and beauty of life does not need explanation and understanding it needs to be lived in with presence. It needs to be embraced and embodied, come wind, rain, or shine.
In “Winter,” Rivero conjures the image of the uprooted individual forced to live in the façade of a stable civilization, how society moves on, the trains go, the brick walls hold fast, but people themselves, ultimately, fall apart. Running though “Winter” is the theme that there is something getting in the way of us claiming and embodying our true identities. That the fast-paced modern society built around us, while presenting the illusion of solidity, support, and steadfastness, in the end does not offer a healthy environment to facilitate true spiritual growth.
Who are we gonna be
When this winter grows in me
I’ll be someone I don’t want to be
I’ll pretend I’ll be She
She who will be free
She who will be wild
She will be the woman that I want to be
You would think that winter would be the best time to premiere this video, but then you would have missed the point. The winter that Lucia Rivero mentions throughout has nothing to do with the weather, it reflects an internal landscape in which the light leaves too early, and frost stops things from growing in their tracks. Good news is winter never lasts, and spring, along with all the hope and new life it brings, is always sure to follow.
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:: stream/purchase Winter here ::
:: connect with Lucia Rivero here ::
Stream: “Winter” – Lucia Rivero
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© courtesy of the artist
© courtesy of the artist:: Stream Lucia Rivero ::
