Swoop and Cross
My second solo album 'Les Fauves' was composed, recorded and mixed between 2018 and 2021 in London.
It's not easy for me to articulate what led me to these tracks. After all that's why I tell these stories with music rather than words. As the album title hints I was very much influenced by fauvism, which shaped much of the form and execution of the tracks. These 8 pieces are ultimately a sonic record of the inner and outer boundaries of my life during these last three years and I cherish them like a diary which can bring me back in time and relive some gone moments.
I am very thankful to Sergio and Celia from Piano and Coffee Records and to Rafael Anton Irisarri from Black Knoll Studio for mastering the album - it is a true privilege to work with artists I admire.
#1 The Hand........................................14:30
#2 Christo Morto....................................8:10
#3 Onni.............................................8:09
#4 Vestal...........................................6:43
#5 Like a burning house.............................4:35
#6 CLVLL............................................3:59
#7 Um volume impossível.............................6:05
#8 The Fist.........................................4:12
The Hand
This track is heavily influenced by one of my favourite movies ever, called Ulysses' Gaze (directed by Theo Angelopoulos). Angelopoulos' filmography is beyond beautiful and his collaborations with Eleni Karindrou are the perfect interplay between image and sound. It is a movie about memory, identity and search. This movie, and in particularly the scene where a disassembled Lenine statue is transported by boat along the Danube, inspired me to write a track for my new album. It was the first one I started composing (back in late 2017) and the last one I finished (already in 2021). So, just like the movie, this track has become a journey for me; one of search of identity and understanding.
Christo Morto
During the years that took me to write and record this album I fell in love with the works of László Krasznahorkai. His style is unique and overwhelming, but after a while natural and soothing. Christo Morto was named after a chapter of his book Seiobo There Below and is an observational study of the sounds of the world and their interplay.
Onni
This one was composed in 2018 and recomposed along the way. I am still learning exactly what it is about; I get a bit further every day.
Like a burning house
Tarkovsky's Offret is a very special movie. The burning house scene is particularly powerful and piercing. This track was made with that scene in mind. It is a song of loss.
CLVLL
I originally composed this track for Piano Day 2018. Initially titled 'Colville' it was named after a small street in central London that is surprisingly charming in the middle of the huge metropolis. Like a safe-port where one can exhale every now and then before entering the busy tube. I passed this street almost daily for year and it always felt like a portal to another dimension during the 30s that took to cross it. Like the street this is a calmer track in the middle of more dystopian compositions in my album. An anchor to a musically safe harbour.
Um volume impossível
The 7th track of my new album is named after a passage of a text from one of my favourite writers, Herberto Hélder. I am not going to try to translate it, as I would fail miserably. But my track “um volume impossível” aims to rework these beautiful words with sounds. It is ultimately a composition about perception and reality mismatches and how to live with these.
The Fist
The final track of the album is a direct contrast to the opening one. Usually it takes me a while to compose and recompose my music but this one was almost immediate. It came into my head as I saw Greenland distorted from above as I flew over from Europe to the US, a few years back. I replicated this distortion, caused by the gazed windows and the curvature of the horizon, into the track. It is a farewell song.