Eric Fuentes – Copper & Gold cd

Eric Fuentes – Copper & Gold cd

Piano, guitar and voice. And nothing more. Evoking both the minimalism of Steve Reich and the nocturnality of Tom Waits, Bernat Sánchez (piano) practically becomes the protagonist of this recording. After a full campaign of live shows like Eric Fuentes & El Mal Menor, the duo made up of Bernat and Eric has toured the country far and wide, performing songs from Eric Fuentes' 3 solo albums so far (Descarrilant ( 1997), Bahía Paraíso (2008) and Eric Fuentes & El Mal (2011), or the already classic 5 albums by The Unfinished Sympathy. The revision gave rise to the creation, and thus Eric and Bernat locked themselves in the studio to record 10 new songs with a clear vocation to limit himself instrumentally: to make an album without percussive elements, strictly restricted to the possibilities, both melodic, harmonic and rhythmic, of the piano, guitar and voice, the duo format that they like so well has seated this pair of musical adventurers.

This new collection of songs (including a version of It was a very good year popularized by Frank Sinatra) surprises not only for its austere interpretation, but for the intensity and trepidation that, unlike so many other minimally orchestrated albums, this one transmits to us. The key, surely, is to use the left hand of the piano as a rhythmic base, interacting with the harmonizing right hand and the rhythm of the electric guitar. This, together with the sinuous vocal melodies, creates a set with groove, atmosphere and emotion, which drinks from John Cage as well as from Prefab Sprout or Robert Wyatt.