The title of the album refers to Rodrigo´s musical roots and influences, as well as his South American origin, and it is inspired by the composer´s early years in his native Argentina, where the literature of Julio Cortazar and Jorge Luis Borges, together with music, played a fundamental role in Faina’s life.
As a point of departure, to compose each piece Faina selected small fragments and short stories from three different books, The Aleph, from Jorge Luis Borges, and Julio Cortazar’s Cronopios Famas and Save Twilight. The texts were chosen not only because of their beauty and powerful evocative force, but also as a strong connection to a specific time and place in the composer's life.
Opening, the first track of the album, welcomes you into a sound-world of rare eloquence. It begins with horns resembling a distant wind, from which a lonely clarinet emerges. Gradually other woodwinds, strings and brass join in a rich display of color and lines, creating an intricate and evocative texture. A simple and expressive melody emerges bringing the piece to an end. Deep, Dark and Blue, an odd choral, eloquently combines carefully chosen instrumental voicings (from Kenny Wheeler-flavored chords to classical contemporary influenced harmonies), an ad libitum piano solo, sensitive drums and bass improvisations and richly layered brass, reeds and voice. At Night, a piece with a subtle air of Tango, aims to capture the spirit of Julio Cortazar’s Speech of The Bear, a text of immeasurable beauty that acts as a prologue of a wistful melody that takes the listener on an exciting journey. The mood changes substantially on, A Room Full of People. The impetuous improvisations of the whole group, combined with guttural orchestral textures and a solid rock groove, creates a sudden rush of energy. Celano’s eccentric and powerful guitar solo precedes an angular melody with hints of composers such as Schoenberg and Webern. Finally, as the piece fades out, the band members display a vast array of sounds and techniques. On An Installment of Time the tension fades and a new landscape emerges. A gentle pulsation, a simple motive, the woodwinds and strings quoting the melody and a deceptive rhythm in 4/4 gradually transforms into an intricate and virtuosic melodic line that serves as musical counterpart to Cortazar’s Instructions on How to Wind a Watch. Towards the end a collective improvisation, where some instructions as the first and final chords are given by the composer, brings the piece to an end with the aim to leave something magical floating in the air. If I’m To Live displays an alluring and hypnotic blend of brass and woodwinds that repeats a cycle of soft chords as a sort of a mantra, while Fanny Alofs’s voice gently soars above the ensemble, capturing the spirit of Julio Cortazar’s poem with the same title. An alternate take of Deep, Dark and Blue follows, where the saxophone section is replaced by electric guitar and clarinets, giving more weight to the brass section and therefore subtly changing the character of the piece. The album ends with Dreams, a bonus track performed by the Metropole Orkestra. The piece uses some of the same compositional techniques found on the rest of the album and exhibits a lush and richly detailed orchestration. Timbre and color take on a new dimension on this piece, giving shape and structure to the music and an overriding arc to the album.
Rodrigo Faina is a composer, guitarist and bandleader whose music often transcends conventional and outdated genre distinctions. An alchemist able to blend the techniques of new music and the traditions of jazz, Tango and other popular genres, into a lush, progressive and evocative sound-world distinctively his own.
The unpredictable and adventurous nature of his musical output places him in a particular position within the contemporary music landscape, and has earned him the respect and admiration of key figures on the international scene. At the same time, his qualities bring him in conflict with both the avant-garde and conceptualist classical composers.
Rodrigo’s music draws inspiration from literature, social inequality and abstract images, and his aim is to develop and renew musical heritage and traditions without losing the connection with the emotional, expressive and spiritual aspects of music.
He has collaborated with renowned ensembles, soloist and conductors from Europe and United States, such as Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, DoelenEnsemble, Metropole Orchestra, Zapp4, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, David Kweksilber Big Band, Bulgaria National Radio Symphony, Platypus Ensemble, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Vince Mendoza, Etienne Siebens, Bas Wiegers and Claron McFadden, among others.
Change ensemble is a dynamic group of artists dedicated to developing and performing new work that lies outside genre specific categorizations. The ensemble is comprised of outstanding musicians with a very diverse background that ranges from contemporary classical to jazz and pop. Some of the members are regarded as the most creative performers and composers of the Dutch jazz and improvised scene, while other members perform regularly with top orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, Ludwig Orchestra and Metropole Orkest.
The group works primarily on conceptual album-based projects with a unique instrumentation that brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical and non classical traditions, and often includes other art forms such as dance, film and literature.
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