Confronting Alegría Rampante’s music results in an unexpected mixture of sentiments. It’s splendorous music, beautiful yet tragic at the same time, and songs like “El Recipiente” and “Tsunami” are amazing displays by main member Eduardo Alegría’s talent, and the result of the project’s combined influences of Joan Manuel Serrat, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Cocteau Twins. Their latest effort demonstrate Alegría Rampante can also be a visual force to take note of.
The former member of Puerto Rico’s Superaquello has been immersed in Alegría Rampante, which has already resulted in some interesting work not only within music. For example, “El Recipiente” was originally composed for a dance piece by Karen Langevin titled Atlas Consentido. Now the track gets a new life thanks to the audiovisual production twma 9A5 Cine Crew and director William Rosario Cruz.
An ambitious short shy of the 12 minute mark, it finds a being (played by Ángel Flores) washed ashore in gorgeously-shot black and white beach (seriously, the photography is stunning in its simplicity). The song is hushed and urgent with Eduardo’s full expressive vocals driving everything while the main character moves in jerky, odd ways, trying to gain footing in his surroundings while we see his body markings. As he struggles to to walk into a forest, pale colors begin to show in the grass and the scenery while yellow lense flares give a new mood. At this point, “Tsunami” is heard, a song with fuller force that finds Alegría singing “fue el mar que me hizo así.”
“El Recipiente/Tsunami” has already been screened in the Puerto Rico Queer Film Fest, and it’s bound to be much more talked about as one of the year’s best. It also fully demonstrates the principles that Alegría Rampante are based upon: Diversidad, Alegría, Libertad or DAL.