Loving this fly on the wall view! The image above is a composite of photos that my creative collaborator, Reyes Rodriguez, shot at our ECLÉCTICA 2014 Opening Celebration this past weekend, on January 4th at Trópico de Nopal in Echo Park. We spent eight hours on the evening prior making the gallery space as aesthetically and sonically pleasing to ourselves as we could, with no idea how amazing the actual event would turn out. When we had finished at about 1am, we were both pretty happy with how the room looked and sounded.
On the night of the celebration, however, we were COMPLETELY. BLOWN. AWAY. by all the family, friends and newcomers that showed up, transforming the venue into something much more beautiful than we could have imagined! What started as a pretty space, clean sound and moody lighting came to life in the form of Community, Music and Love…all thanks to the wonderful people who supported, attended, staffed and performed at the event. On behalf of my partners Reyes and Daniel French, WE ARE EVER SO GRATEFUL TO YOU!!!
Ecléctica was extra blessed by the following people who lent their time and talents to this special evening:
REYES RODRIGUEZ (Capricorn, Ecléctica/Trópico de Nopal)
DANIEL FRENCH (Ecléctica/Las Cafeteras)
LEN ESPARZA (Capricorn, Trópico de Nopal)
MARIALICE JACOB (Forró in L.A.)
RAYMOND GUTIERREZ (Trópico de Nopal)
ANDREA LOPASSO (Forró in L.A.)
FABIO SANTANA DE SOUZA (Samba Society/Forró in L.A.)
ROBERTO CASTELLANOS aka DJ FRESKO (Listen Recovery)
TE’AMIR YOHANNES SWEENEY (Sweeney Brothers Band/EthioCali)
TUTU SWEENEY (Sweeney Brothers Band)
KAHLIL CUMMINGS (Balandugu Kan)
DUSTIN WARREN (Wilberta band)
DANIEL RICHARDSON (Wilberta band)
QUINCY McCRARY (Mayer Hawthorne band)
SASHA ALI (Capricorn, Discostan/CAFAM)
DAISY ZIN (Capricorn, ‘Steady Beat for Lovers’ radio/Caracol Marketplace)
EN DY (Capricorn, artist-at-large)
Keep an eye out for the next episode of Ecléctica, happening the first week of February.
