Raúl Cantizano & David Cordero - Aunque llegue la mañana (Noray)

The Slow Music Movement
Aug 4
2 min read

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's July 27th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

This is the cover for Raúl Cantizano & David Cordero's, Aunque llegue la mañana album, Colorful abstract watercolor with star and geometric patterns on a textured white background, featuring lime green, yellow, and orange hues.

David Cordero is a prolific ambient producer with serious TSMM blog and playlist form. He’s based in Cadiz, and what better location than to bump into experimental flamenco guitarist Raúl Cantizano, who as well as rocking the barrio fiestas has been involved in everything, from angular art rock to experimental electroacoustic work.

The release is also the second on Cordero’s newly minted Noray label, which is shaping up very nicely. Cantizano gets the ball rolling with some minimal acoustic picking and gentle intentions as Cordero sits back, content to lay down translucent electronic swathes in his path. “Resonancia Angular” belies its name to set new standards in flamenco lullabies, resulting in the perfect siesta soundtrack, Cordero once again subtly augmenting rather than distracting from the six string maestro. Just in case you ate too much for lunch and are having trouble nodding off, Lela Soto’s disembodied vocal haunts “Algo a Lo Que Regresar” for extra soporific effect. “Fragmento Ausente” develops a mild edge as the strings become more recognisably flamenco but are juxtaposed with some subtly edgy electronics and, whether live or manipulated, the sound of strings being bowed and/or manipulated.

Cantizano takes it easier on “Los Arrepentimientos”. As ghostly pads blow in from the north he sits back on a sheltered terrace and brightens the grey skies with a warm, intermittent refrain. Now rested he lightly moves his fingers over the strings to give the field recordings and reversed sounds on “Fugaz” some forward momentum. He’s in rightfully optimistic mood on “Todavia hay sol” as he soaks up some rays, the notes hanging in the air like pollen from the Andalusian flora, as Cordero politely encroaches on his sunny playing with some glacially cascading synths.

"Mi Centro Vine a Encontrar" is the album’s peak flamenco guitar moment, although there will still be no dancing, before the album fittingly weaves its way along dusty, rosemary strewn, electroacoustic Andalusian paths, planting the seed of a new genre that we can only hope germinates in the region’s sun baked landscape. Olé.