The recording project of Washington, DC-based filmmaker and songwriter Raul Zahir De Leon, CANANDAIGUA makes music “rooted in traditions of folk and Americana [but] shaped by experimentation.” Combining traditional acoustic instruments with synthesizers, samples and found sounds, the style layers familiar elements into something new, leading to a singular aesthetic that nods to what has been before while subverting conventions. Supported by friends and anchored by De Leon’s poetic, narrative-based lyricism (developed with previous acts like Stamen & Pistils, Radel Esca and Dead Artists), CANANDAIGUA delves into individual stories with a view to elucidating the pressing themes of our times.
This summer sees the release of Slight Return, a brand new CANANDAIGUA EP which pushes the boundaries of what such a sound can do. As highlighted by latest single, ‘Calm Through the Clearing’, a song written in memory of Deon Kay and Karon Hylton—two young Black men killed by police in De Leon’s home of Washington D.C. Occurring in the aftermath of the marches for justice that made up much of summer 2020, the deaths only reiterated how a disrespect of black and brown bodies is more than an aberration in certain men, rather some force ingrained in the national (or indeed Western) psyche.
Partly inspired by Black Arts hero Betye Saar, CANANDAIGUA overtly traces this flaw through the entire system of imperialist power, illuminating American violence as an inherent part of consumerism’s banal milieu. But running in parallel to this is a very personal, heartfelt plea. An expression of desperation captured in the lo-fi intimacy of the sound. The disbelief that we are still here, and heading nowhere fast.
When will the past be taken as such
A wretch of a beast, we stay in its clutch
The grip of the pain, its hers and its his
and all the while seeming to say,
“That’s just how it is”
When do we, become truly free
Delivered from oh such iniquities
The road remains long, and may outlast us all
one foot ‘fore the next till the day that we fall
Photographs by Farrah Skeiky, cover art by Maggie Famiglietti,