Music Review: Ginugunita Kita, A Story About Life

This is a collaborative work between Miclat – Lucas; the literary work of Maningning Miclat is then wedded to the creative music works of Jesse Lucas, and then brought to life by the singing voice of Banaue Miclat-Janssen.  This is an album that speaks in volume based on the composer and the writer alone!  Add to that the voice that gave life to this collaboration and what you have is an album that reaches out in time!

The people behind Ginugunita Kita

This 9 track album shows the life and mind of Maningning during her stay in this plane.  The arrangement per song is wonderfully made that it truly wove a spell of time and out of time.  The sense of time and the shared understanding between two composers is felt and heard between the rest and notes.  The piano and cello truly made a haunting impact in some pieces and a playful harmony in some.  Each piece tells you a bit of Maningning; her life, her pain, her joys and the way she sees the world in various stages of her life.

I how I wish Ang Naliligaw was a part of the album.  It is one song that showed the dilemma of Maningning on a playful note.  How she is lost but simply made the best of things by going back to where it all began.  I have some favorites in this 9-track album.  They are: Kulay sa Bagyo, Verses #2 and To Catch A Second And Turn It To Forever.

Kulay sa Bagyo showed a playful side of Maningning as interpreted by Jesse and Banaue.  It may be playful but there is a dark side to it as reflected by the stormy clouds.  Verses #2 is truly haunting.  I don’t know the poet but in this writing, I somehow understand her and what her deepest wish is.  Something that she hopes those who gets to read it will understand.  Somehow I understand her.  Somehow I know her pain, her wish and her freedom.  Somehow I understand that yearning . . . a yearning that we all have, if we are honest enough to face it. 

To Catch A Second and Turn It To Forever is something that I will not forget, next to Verses #2, for the message strikes close to home.  If I could, I would and so will those who has experienced lost in their lives.  After seeing Banaue shed a tear during this song during the Aldaba presentation and afterwards hearing it clearly at the comfort of home after the CCP event, I then truly understand the beauty, the yearning, the desire and the sense of mortality and immortality of this song.  It is like a double-bladed sword, one side showing pain while the other side is showing beauty; it is like smiling with full of joy to someone but at the same time tears of sorrow rolls down your face - a truly fit ending piece in the Ginugunita Kita album.

Ginugunita Kita album was made available during the poetry awarding event by the Maningnig Miclat Art Foundation held at the Little Theater of the CCP.  For inquiries regarding the availability of the said album, you may possibly reach out to the foundation or to Artist Playground Inc via Facebook.