textura

Albums
Tomas Barfod
The Beach Boys
Peter Caeldries
Carlos Cipa
Cordero & Guajardo
Cristal
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DeWalta
Forrest Fang
Geskia!
Helena Gough
The Green Kingdom
Harper and Smyth
Hideyuki Hashimoto
High Aura'd
François Houle 5 + 1
I:Cube
Marielle V Jakobsons
Akira Kosemura
Kshatriy
Landing
Library Tapes
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Elisa Luu
Moon Ate The Dark
Murmer
Norman Conquest / Szelag
Novak and Crouch
Pausal
Pawn
Pig & Dan
Sterac
S_W_Z_K
szilárd
Antonio Trinchera
Damian Valles
Josh Varnedore
Zilverhill

Reissue
David Bowie

Compilations / Mixes
Digitalism
Guy Gerber
Poolside Sounds
Tempo Dreams Vol. 1
Variables

EPs
Celer & Machinefabriek
Claws For?
Flowers Sea Creatures
Kangding Ray
Purple Bloom
Stellate 2
szilárd
Andy Vaz
Windy & Carl

DVD
Stefan Goldmann

David Cordero & Carles Guajardo: Emma
Foehn

Though modest in length at twenty-seven minutes, David Cordero (aka Ursula) and Carles Guajardo's Emma makes a strong impression, even if its neo-classical music sometimes seamlessly blends into the background. But that's by design, presumably: after all, the recording features film soundtrack material created for Roberto Pérez's film Emma, and very fine music it is, too. At the core of the mini-album's settings are Cordero's electric guitar atmospheres and Guajardo's elegant piano playing, and the music is more inclined towards Debussy and Satie than Bartok and Schoenberg.

Pieces like “Presentación” (Presentation) and “Punto y aparte” (New Paragraph) convey a restful ambiance in pairing crystalline guitar textures with bright sprinkles of piano. A brief exercise in piano minimalism, “Primera vez” (First Time) finds Guajardo's chords bleeding reverberantly into the ample spaces around the notes. Often, as occurs during “Inicio” (Initiation), a setting is elevated when Cristina Gámez's violin playing is conjoined to Guajardo's piano and Cordero's guitar, and the material grows even richer when Marco Serrato's contrabass is added to the mix on “Varios personajes” (Various Characters), “La llamada” (The Call), and “No poder mirar atrás (Final)” (Do Not Look Back Power). Melodically, “Cruce de historias” (Crossing Stories) is perhaps the set's strongest piece, to a large degree due to the heartfelt emotionalism of the violin playing and the track's pensive quality. Soothing, stately, and sensual, Emma's music plays like a half-hour performance of pretty neo-impressionistic pieces presented in an exquisite European salon.

July-August 2012