Hear Ali Beletic’s newest single off her upcoming debut album, Legends of These Lands Left to Live!
Out June 17th on Lightning Records, Stereogum recently debuted “Band Of Outsiders” calling it an “Ennio Morricone-esque excursion…”
I spent several years in the desert crafting this record. It’s a very emotional, raw and inspired record. It took a lot to get there.”
Ali Beletic is best known for her work as an installation artist, creating beautiful symbolic art stunts as far flung as hiking in and installing mahogany and glass Judd-like sculptural pools into remote desert, throwing parties with drummers hidden throughout backcountry, lighting up an entire boulder field you can hike through or riding vintage motorcycles backcountry to create beautiful lines of fire.
Legends of These Lands Left to Live is her long anticipated debut record, written and recorded during her time spent in the raw American landscape of the Sonoran Desert, after having left the art/punk scene and saturation of Brooklyn to explore concepts of transformation, personal rebellion, and that which exists out on the boundaries of our humanity. Filled with mysterious and emotional songs, Legends is the anthem of that journey, tracing rock n roll’s ancient history off road through personal incantations of vanguardism, and telling her vogue rebel stories from the artist streets of New York and the vast Southwest.
What emerges is a very powerful feminine rock n roll record, evoking the bare humanity of solo-Lennon and the overtone depths of Skip James, the proto punk power of Patti Smith and the sounds of self that emerge from the quiet, raw, visceral American landscape when we allow ourselves to hear our own intimate voice.
Her stories of cultural nomadism take us from beatnik New York to the new wave of women motorcycle riders, enlivening wild romantic parts of self through the backcountry of ancient deserts told through her intimate, jazz-like, sensual vocals, evocative of singers as far flung as Mary Travers or Cat Power; up front, dry, intent, rhythmic and powerful, and accompanied by her broken speaker, gritty electric guitars.
Legends was recorded and produced alongside Lightning co-founder Seth Olinsky (Cy Dune, Akron/Family, Angels of Light) in the art/music studio they set up in the Sonoran Desert. They finished the record in several different studios in Los Angeles and New York with drummers Danny Frankel (Lou Reed, Fiona Apple) and Mike Horick, and are releasing the record on Lightning Records, the label the two founded alongside Lightning Magazine to bring the badass, rock n roll spirit of fun havery back into the world.
THERE ARE LEGENDS OUT HERE THAT THIS CULTURE DOES NOT PARTAKE IN: LEGENDS PASSED DOWN FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION, TOLD BY GREAT ARTISTS, LEGENDS OF WILDNESS, ARCHETYPES OF OUR OWN HUMANITY, EXPERIENCES, JOURNEYS, SENSIBILITIES, PASSIONS, LIVING LEFT UNDONE AND UNEXPLORED.
Ali Beletic is a true nature’s child. – Yasmine Ganley Anyonegirl, New Zealand
Ali talks about her Lightning release:
ROCKNROLL IS A LATENT INSTINCT, MAY WE LIVE ON FOREVER.
Humans are a gold mine. Don’t ever forget that. Boldness, passion, totemic awareness, sensual experience that goes out beyond your skin, raw loudness, speed, these aren’t just concepts, these are lifestyles. Sometimes you have to burn ablaze, or head out into the middle of nowhere, or ride desert at night, to enliven your sensuality. You are a shapeshifter and you’ve got the power. It’s ancient, it’s in your skin.
I had left Brooklyn. I had left the faded yet fantastic memories of playing guitar in our no heat vacant warehouse with my neighbors in the pitch black for fun. It was time for something new. I was living in the Sonoran Desert hiking daily into trackless wilderness, and observing the wildlife there. I was working on a record.
I spent several years in the desert crafting this record. It’s a very emotional, raw and inspired record. It took a lot to get there. Many ideas, reflections, a badass muscle car, a couple cool motorbikes, faded direct, overlaying symbolism, direct direct, passing torches through the hills, nights out in the wild, an old storied buffalo robe, cliffside movement, patience, many days playing guitars, chasing the ecstatic, a reflection pool, studio after studio, setting sights for the horizon, and all the wonderful people I met along the way.
I knew there was power in this. It’s not logical, its visceral and very tangible. I believe in rock n roll and I believe you have to set up a vanguard opportunity trigger to keep up with it. It’s bold and it’s big. I think we can bring it back. Get loud, turn up, and rock n roll.