este mundo by Rupa & The April Fishes

With their second album, este mundo (this world), Rupa & the April Fishes hold up a carnival mirror to life and present a warped, humorous and occasionally disquieting reflection. Sequestered beneath Rupa’s infectious and captivating melodies are thought-provoking themes that address life, love, art, death and the real and artificial divisions that keep us apart. The San Francisco-based musical agitators are specialists in crossing borders and building bridges. On este mundo, they effortlessly blur the boundaries of genre and geography to create a sound Time Out has called global agit-pop.

Este mundo was recorded at Prairie Sun Studios by engineer and sound wizard Oz Fritz, who is best known for his work with Tom Waits (Mule Variations). Guests include rapper Boots Riley of The Coup, along with some of the Bay Area’s best musical talents such as Tin Hat’s trumpeter Ara Anderson and Serbian slap bassist Djordje Stijepovic. Rupa & the April Fishes blend an alternative pop attitude with international spices, mixing in elements of Gypsy swing, Colombian cumbia, French chanson and Indian ragas. According to lead singer Rupa, “este mundo is a collection of sounds and songs highlighting life’s accidental beauty and surging joy as well as their inexorable partner: human suffering.”

Rupa speaks from experience. A practicing doctor by day and a professional musician by night, she’s regularly exposed to life’s fragility, resilience and randomness. Her unique perspective informs much of her deeply personal and poetic compositions. Good Morning America recently sat down with Rupa to discuss the delicate balance of being a musician on the rise with her day job at a San Francisco hospital where she’s confronted regularly with death and suffering.

cumbancha.com