CD – Aagoo
Mexican Israel Martinez composes rarefied experimental electronic music, and he’s careful in unravelling consistent and very sensitive sequences inspired by the minimalist canon. These sequences are quite iterated and melodic, and their development seems to be independent from both analog and digital constructions. Distinctly dark atmospheres, with ambient and strongly narrative design, suffused in textures and in the use of samples; one example being a vocal excerpted from a documentary by director Carlos Juan Rulf (‘Del olvido al No me acuerdo’). A second sample is ascribable to Luciano Berio, and is a fragment of an opera for piano solo, ‘Wasserklavier’. These are recognizable elements, woven together with field recordings, varied tonal modulations and an orchestrated emphasis of drones and traditional instruments. The induced jolts are always trivial, resulting in more controlled moments, which allow for the development of new musical explorations, keeping the tension alive. Mental landscapes, oneiric trips with hypnotic rhythms, and the five different tracks constituting ‘Nareah’ certainly do not allow us to settle, shining through with intensity and poetic concreteness.