El Condor Pasa; Cancion De La Trilla De Ayacucho; Carnaval de Tambobamba; Adios Pueblo de Ayacucho; Toril; Sonaba;La Ayacuchanita; Qori – Kinto; Parihuana; Semana Santa En Ayacucho; Porque Quieres Olvidarme;Helme.
Raul Garcia
Pueblo : CDDP 1020
This is an album that unless you know a great deal of Peruvian music will with one exception be unknown to you, that being the opening track El Condor Pasa, made famous over the whole globe of course by Simon and Garfunkel back in the 60s.The playing is immediately top class, and the opening part of El Condor Pasa, the way you might expect to hear it, but then the speed increases two further times and the piece takes on a whole new sound completely. From then, the music is very varied, with some brilliant guitar playing from this marvelous player, and a unique sound world that does separate this music from any other Latin inspired pieces. We get next the Cancion de la Trilla de Ayacucho, very fast and lively, followed by Carnaval de Tambobamba, quite different in style but still very quick with lots of part – writing to keep the listener interested and involved. Adios Pueblo de Ayacucho, has some amazing finger work from Garcia, who really does make this music live. Incidentally I did detect a few instances on this piece that sounded very much like El Condor de Pasa! Toril has a repetitive chord accompaniment to a vivacious melody and some interesting harmonies too.
Sonaba is a slow piece with an emotional opening full of glissandi, and vibrato on chords as well as solo notes. Ayacuchanita is fast , rhythmic and full of exciting sounds, with the following track Qori – Kinto also very fast and still managing to have that totally original sound that much of this album has. Parihuana, Semana Santa en Ayacucho , Porque’ Quieres Olvidarme, and the final track Helme continue in the same vein, namely music that is quite singular in its sound, but always marvelously played, and every piece worth hearing played by this wonderful player.
I wonder if the sheet music for this album’s pieces is available, because they really do make for a lovely listening experience and I can only imagine that playing them yourself would be equally entertaining.
Chris Dumigan
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