Helena Espvall/Ernesto Diaz-Infante/Marjorie Sturm - A Shadowed Fulguration

 

Released: March 28

There’s a very haunting tone that this album manages to strike throughout its entire runtime. It never feels menacing, angry, unsettling, or anything like that. Instead, it just has a certain aura about it. Something that feels cinematic but also strays into territory so abstract that it refuses to feel like a simple soundtrack. It is the brainchild of a collaborative effort by the Ernesto Diaz-Infante (a familiar name to the blog) and two long-time friends of his, Marjorie Sturm and Helena Espvall. The three have known each for decades at this point and this album is the result of their long hoped for trip to Lisbon where Helena resides and also where this album was composed and recorded. 

Now, I don’t know exactly of the place where this album was recorded. But wherever it was, I can really feel the room in this recording. It is airy, yet still intimate. The various instruments used here are given just the right amount of room to breathe, reverberate, and reflect, which makes for this beautiful amalgamation of acoustic sound crafted between the three. Of course, Diaz-Infante is well-known so his intricate guitar pieces and they are featured prominently here. But the contribution of Espvall and Sturm here is so much atmospheric ambiance in which the notes of the guitar play around in. “There is Appearance, from which they ratify” exudes so much abstract strangeness in it composition as we hear the Nepalese flute and strange percussion fill the room. The breathiness of the flute feels so incredibly intimate yet spaced out eloquently. Espvall’s cello technique, meanwhile, adds this sense of dramatic tension on top of all of it that contrasts in a lovely manner with the guitar stylings of Infante. 

This trio of artists make for such a wonderful and sonically interesting album. I love how its feels so cinematic in its approach while also eschewing much of the tropes of making such music. It is inventive and intricate in a way that feels ultimately incredibly thoughtful while also maintaining a sense of spontaneity. A lovely and beautiful album for quiet study or simple relaxation.