19 June,2023 09:25 AM IST | Mumbai | Shriram Iyengar
Lucky Ali. Pic Courtesy/Instagram
It was German playwright Bertolt Brecht who famously wrote, "Will there be singing in the dark times?/ Yes/ There will be singing about the dark times." The latest single from singer Lucky Ali and Israeli composer Eliezer Botzer's Eli Ali Project, which was released on June 6, stands testament to this. Titled Virtuality, the song touches upon the growing domination of Artificial Intelligence on human society, but it was a wholly human conflict that came in the way of its creation.
Lucky Ali and Eliezer Botzer
The project began in 2017, Ali informs us, when the composer visited Israel where producer Bob Stark introduced the duo. "The album, Lemalla, is basically a dialogue between two people across the globe," the singer explains. For Botzer, the songs are a product of the musical relationship. "Every song speaks about different aspects of life. Virtuality is a song that expresses the truth of technology today," he says.
Yet it is not the soft pop-folk synth of the composition that sets it apart. Rather, it is the context of its art emerging from amidst an international conflict that makes for an interesting story. Botzer shares that the production team chose to collaborate with artists in Ukraine to animate and shoot the music video for the song. "I liked the concept of how they structured it. I look at it now, and I realise the amount of work that would have gone into it," he says.
An animated moment from the video. Pics Courtesy/YouTube
The shoot began in 2021, and was almost into the completion stages when the Russian advancement began in November 2022, Botzer reveals. Sasha Prilutsky, director of the video, who coordinated with the team in Ukraine, says, "Before the war, Ukraine was a dreamland for me; it was a place where I could do more for the same budget and fulfil my creative expression in the best way possible."
The conflict almost thwarted it. Ali notes that while the geography is not relevant to the song itself, the conflict adds to the context and makes the creation process admirable.
Prilutsky elaborates that the animated portion of the concept kept developing over the shoot. When the conflict broke out, the project was stalled. "At first we kept silent, understanding it [the video] was not the most crucial thing to deal with while our friends were struggling for their lives. But we were approached by the team leaders [Stas and Kukushkin - the producer and the animation artist] who felt that the agenda was more relevant than ever now, and they wanted to bring it to life through the darkness they were experiencing in their everyday life," he remarks.
A moment from the music video shot in Ukraine
As animators left the country, or went under the radar, Prilutsky admits it was a challenge to keep going. "What helped us was that along the way, everyone connected to what we were saying on a personal level," he recalls. The director elaborates on the brief for the video saying, "The flame symbolises being present and having faith. We had this idea of disconnecting from everything that is not real and feels doubtful in our life [symbolised by the phone]." The animation, almost symbolically, ends with the single man's fight inspiring many more to join him - an imagery that acquires greater significance in the context of the global conflict.
For Ali though, the delays in the release of the song were almost providential. "Lemalla means higher thought in Hebrew. It is a philosophy of search. Thus, you cannot force it. A song has to come out when it does," the singer muses philosophically. With the third single on the album out, Botzer has already set sights on the next one. "We are already hard at work. If everything goes right, we will have another song out by this year," he says. Of course, Ali says, it is the music that keeps them going. "In the midst of all conflict, the ideas and music have to keep going. This is the light," he says.
Log on to: Visuality on Spotify; YouTube
