A beautiful song with the most dramatic, eerie history.
homospouses, a duo consisting of Lika Shubitidze and Tato Gegechkori, have just announced plans for their debut CD in summer 2020. That said, both of these musicians have already amassed lots of musical experience throughout last two decades.
Lika Shubitidze had been taking part in popular singing contests throughout the country from young age and after relocating to United States, recorded several collaborative albums with local jazz musicians in St. Louis. Tato Gegechkori has been involved in music for perhaps even longer, playing accordeon on Soft Eject’s “Wanderer” – one of the greatest Georgian releases of the recent decades. In 2008, the two musicians met each other in USA and have since returned back to Georgia.
The story of their new song “In the Madhouse” (საგიჟეთში) – which has also an English version – is dark and at the same time, strangely poignant. Years ago, Dachi Darchia, a talented young cinematographer, was directing a documentary about one of Georgia’s main mental health institutions. He befriended a patient there, who used to call himself Beka Kintsviseli, although nobody there ever really knew his name. He used to sing this song at the hospital.
Composer of this song is unknown – it might have been Beka himself or anybody else. The lyrics describe fragmented, often surreal imagery of the institution. Not much is known about Beka either.
Dachi, having learnt this song from Beka, used to perform it in the circle of his close friends, that included Lika and Tato. Dachi urged them to record their own version of it. Dachi didn’t live to see this completed – he was killed on the street at night after having DJed in a club. The sound sample at the end of this song is a recording of Dachi himself singing the closing verse.
The song video is directed by Geda Darchia, Dachi’s sister. Herself a talented photographer, she combined various continuous photo stills she took of homospouses.
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homospouses on Facebook, Instagram.
Photo: Geda Darchia
