Mary Ocher seems to be in a space out of regular time in the video for “The Rubaiyat Medley” playing a harp with fruit hanging from strings around her as she sings bits of the famous “The Rubaiyat” of Persian poet and polymath Omar Khayyam (1048-1131 CE), one of the classics of Islamic and world literature. The video also seems to be arranged like a silent movie with scene and title cards. Nearly three minutes in the classical instrumentation shifts into something more like funk with a solid back beat. All this with Ocher’s dramatic and highly expressive vocals providing the commentary as comedic scenes unfold in the first half of the song. But this particular song borrowing from variations on Dorothy Ashby’s 1970s compositions of the aforementioned poem and the movements across its ten minute thirty-eight seconds run time evolve into other musical realms as well as what might be described as cosmic downtempo during a period in which it appears the richness of fruit is featured and celebrated. In the “Epilogue” section Ocher’s voice is treated with a Vocoder briefly before the song picks up tempo again for “The Betrayal” portion that has a Bernie Worrell-esque electro funk that slinks along as we see images of people wearing sheep masks being annointed with the pulp of pomegranate from a bowl by a priestly figure. The end. What did we just see? Ocher directed the video with help from collaborators but it felt like a more playful and cosmic Pier Paolo Pasolini or Abbas Kiarostami film setting it apart from most music videos in recent memory. Watch the video for “The Rubaiyat Melody (feat. Your Government)” on YouTube and follow Mary Ocher at the links below. Her new album Your Guide to Revolution released in Europe on June 14, 2024 on vinyl, digital download and streaming with a physical release set to be made available more widely in the rest of the world on July 19.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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