Duermevela
New Focus, 2020
9/10
The debut portrait album from Tomás Gueglio, Duermevela represents the artistic qualities of Chicago and Buenos Aires, which are both hometowns for Gueglio, where his unique approach to chamber music intrigues us immediately.
“Mil Panaderos” starts the listen with solo violin from Austin Wulliman, where the artist mesmerizes us with bare, effective flashes of string acrobatics, and “Apostillas a Mil Panaderos” follows with cello, violin, piano, percussion, soprano sax and clarinet from Latitude 49, who use each instrument sparingly but with much impact.
At the midpoint, “After L’Addio/Felt: After L/Addio” recruits Ben Melsky’s stunning harp prowess on the finger dragging technique that often twinkles with a dreamy quality, which continues to “After L’Addio/Felt: Felt”, where a calmer approach unfolds amid the introspective song craft.
The final track, “Canción en Duermevela”, exits the listen with 4 movements, where a guitar quartet utilize plucking, tapping and scraping gestures that align with rhythm, intimacy and melody, which arrives at a very unpredictable place.
A very precisely layered effort where tone, timbre and technique are all tweaked, manipulated and illuminated in Gueglio’s inimitable vision, you’ve probably never heard a chamber record quite like this one, and that’s a big part of the charm here.
Travels well with: Wang Lu- An Atlas Of Time; Collage Project- Off Brand