// SaffronKeira "Tourette" (Italian)

Well, here we are. About a half year after the superb "A New Life" double disc release from SaffronKeira on the Denovali Label we have a brand new album. "Tourette" follows the same overall soundscape of the debut release but pushes it in a new direction. When I first heard the works from SaffronKeira (Eugenio Caria), I was reminded of the artists who inspired me to write my own music. Eugenio manages to wrap all these various artists styles and production techniques up in own way, add in some of his own ideas, throw them up in the air and see what lands. Its an incredible emotional journey through quite a familiar yet also slightly disturbing soundscape that moves you.

With the debut release Eugenio wanted to tell of the story of life, from the beginnings to the end from the joys of new life to the sadness of loss. With this new release, SaffronKeira instead takes you into the mind. As its name suggests, "Tourette" talks about mental disabilities and the difficulties of coming to terms with what this means. Also like the disease itself, the music can have spontaneous outbursts where it changes direction and hits you with something digital and harsh the next moment it could hit you with something very emotional. The best track that shows this is the frankly superb "1859-1904". 

There are many highlights on this album that must be heard to fully appreciate. If you are looking for a taster of these tracks, you can find videos on youtube.com. These are as follows:

Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhS7NITDyCA - "1859-1905"
Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHyguJZFXcI - "The Hope"
Link 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgYAO29369A - "The Disease"

This new album is a natural progression for SaffronKeira and its great to see that Eugenio Caria is kicking out new material at a great rate. For those who love music by Max Richter or the Mexican genius that is Murcof, this and his debut release are must buys.

Buy from:
Link 4: http://denovali.com/saffronkeira/

SaffronKeira will be performing at Störung Festival 8 on 17th April at TMB, Metro Universitat, 19:00h, and also on the 19th April at La Farinera del Clot, 20:00h.

@storungfestival8
#storungfestival8

// Denovali Swingfest 2012 Lineup Update

Denovali has announced the lineup for the dates on which the artists will be performing at Swingfest 2012.

This will be an awesome festival to go to if you are able to get to it. My highlights for anyone going would be:

Friday: A Dead Forest Index

Saturday: Moritz Von Oswald Trio, The Pirate Ship Quintet

Sunday: Murcof, Hidden Orchestra, SaffronKeira

If you go, be sure to make a special effort to see Murcof and SaffronKeira. Not to be missed.

// Classic Release: Cosmos by Murcof

I have recently been flicking through my CD collection and I stumbled across an old friend by one of my favorite artists, Cosmos by Murcof.

Cosmos is the 4th release from Mexican electronic producer Fernando Corona who is better known as Murcof. Cosmos is an ambient album that is best enjoyed in a quiet, dark environment. When Murcof went on tour with this album he performed in places that best visually described the music, one such place was a planetarium (which I would have personally loved to have gone to). This album (most notably through its name) is probably the best soundtrack that you could to listen when you are out in a dark field doing stargazing etc, which I would also personally recommend.

When listening to this album, you can hear that it is a Murcof album, but it is also quite noticeable that the sound has changed and evolved. Whereas in albums such as Corona's iconic debut album, the 2002 Martes, where the classical instrumentation has been taken from tracks originally composed by Arvo Part then manipulated in free and bought software, in Cosmos all the instrumentation is composed specially for the album and was recorded by Fernando Corona. If, like me you enjoy the micro programming of Murcof's earlier work, you may find this 6 track album a hard fit, but if you manage to find some time in the dark (preferably with stars) this album really comes into its own. My personal favorite track from this album is the 4th track, Cometa. Find this track at the Youtube link below.

For fans of Murcof, Max Richter, Marsen Jules, Arvo Part etc.

Visit Link 1: http://www.murcof.com/main.html
Visit Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5dKlCTcwAQ

// Spot On: Artist - Murcof (Mexico)

Murcof is the solo project of Mexican artist Fernando Corona. According to Corona, his interest in music came from his father's music, most notably Beatles and Classical records. As a child he can remember listening to this music, and as he grew into his early teen years his interest in electronics and recording came to the fore. It was when he realised that you could sample music and record your own sounds over the top that Fernando Corona realised that he could produce his own music.

As his musical interests grew he moved on to learn about becoming a technician in analysis and systems programming and how to DJ. In the 80's he admits to an interest in the Industrial and synth pop music scenes, but it is his early exposure to music by his father that has most influenced his musical style. Later, he became a member of Tijuanna's Nortec collective, a collective of artists that had the same artistic thoughts and creativity. As a member of the Nortec collective, Fernando Corona started to write music under his moniker Terrestre which blended his interest of electronic music with traditional Mexican instrumentation and musical ideas as well as sounds that he heard around him at the time.

While part of the Nortec collective, Fernando's need to experiment with different ideas and sounds drove him to playing around and manipulating works from Arvo Part etc. While manipulating these tracks he came up with his first track under his Murcof moniker, "MF Relay". Before long, he says, Corona had a group of tracks and he decided to release them as Murcof, thus, Martes his first release was born.

Corona, as Murcof has gone on to write a number of other albums taking a letter from his moniker as the inspiration for the name of the album. Martes (2002) was his first release, and this has been followed by Utopia (2004) which includes remixes of tracks from his Martes album, Remembranza (2005) and Cosmos (2007). As Murcof though, Corona has also done a collaboration EP with Erik Truffaz called Mexico (2008) as well as a specially commissioned album called The Versailles Sessions (2008) which was performed as part of the Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes, an annual festival which takes place at Château de Versailles in France.

As well as a wide variety of albums, Corona has also written the soundtrack to a film called La Sangra Illuminada (2007) which consists of much shorter tracks than that we have become used to from Murcof but tracks that still carry on in the same vein.

Murcof fans around the world are currently awaiting his next album release Oceano which grew from another specially commissioned piece which was performed by himself (as Murcof) and BCN216 an instrumental group from Barcelona, Spain where Corona now lives.

Visit Link 1: http://www.murcof.com/main.html
Visit Link 2: http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/interviews/murcofiw.htm
Visit Link 3: http://www.last.fm/music/Murcof