Feature: Gerson Pelafsky Decodes “Adio Kerida”
What was the initial spark or idea that led to the creation of "Adio Kerida?"
I started a project to recreate songs from Sephardic Jews and bring them to a pop/electronic language, inspired by the quest to unite tradition and modernity in music. We're talking about people who were expelled from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century! I like the idea of making contemporary art that brings timeless and universal elements. Then I found this song, “Adio Kerida,” which is a song that talks about separation, about moving away from someone or something that once gave meaning to life; It’s a sad song but at the same time the lyrics say,” I'm gonna knock on other doors”, in other words: there is a thread of hope, I'm going after something better. My version is instrumental, but surely I managed to keep the original feeling of sadness.
Is there a particular message or theme you hope listeners take away from this track?
“Adio Kerida” is a song that talks about frustration and helplessness in love, but it is also a metaphor for uprooting, as I discovered - the loss of references that once made sense, a situation that all people may experience at some point in their lives.
I felt loneliness like never before during the pandemic, lost in relation to my previous references. Little by little, music helped me to reestablish bonds with people. I like to read Sufi poetry, like Rumi's, to inspire me. For Sufis, the attribute of beauty is inseparable from love. So if you devote yourself to something you love in life, as I do with music, life itself will become full of beauty. So love can lead to beauty and beauty to love: I like to think that my music can nurture people's sensitivity and inspire in this direction and help a little to overcome the feeling of helplessness.
What did you enjoy most about making this track?
I particularly liked taking a traditional theme and adding my own material to it - the arrangement made the song different from the original theme, it looked just like me.
What is your creative vision as an artist?
"Art exists so that reality does not destroy us". I like this phrase from the philosopher Nietzsche. I see music as a way to reduce the boundaries between the outer and inner world .Getting stuck in your subjectivity can poison you from the inside - when I express I transform emotional material that is sometimes conflicting into something beautiful.
How do you continuously grow and evolve as an artist?
I often have no idea how my music will turn out, I like to be guided a lot by intuition and let the music flow spontaneously. I think I have a jazzy way, in the sense of improvisation. I like to mix influences: Rock, classical music, jazz, dance music, electronic, oriental music, etc. When it comes to production - and I produce the songs myself – I have to apply calculation and premeditation to reach certain results. So, this mix of spontaneity with calculation and technique produces interesting results that lead me to grow as an artist. And sometimes one aspect changes place with the other: I discover something technical through experimentation or creativity starting from premises, from something premeditated.
