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With "Betweenness" LP, Manrico Montero goes a step further for our great pleasure by releasing his first CD album on SEM label, for a delicate swarm of digi-acoustic texture.
Like an evanescent orchestra, "Betweenness" is conducted in an interlacing mixture of saxophone solos, piano melodies, string waves, iridescent guitars, bucolic field recordings, and some hypnotic and oniric lullabies.
Already known for his highly acclaimed "Fernen" EP released on IOD (eko002) nominated at Qwartz Awards 2007, Manrico Montero (previously Karras) shows us a deep maturity in his compositions for an elegant, thin and sophisticated album. A maturity which joins a deep control without any feeling of pretentiousness while never forgetting the simplicity of his approach and its essentiel emotional impact.
The whole project includes splendid collaborations of Hidekazu Wakabayashi, Vera Ostrova, Stefano Tedesco, Eduardo Melendez, Alexander Bruck, Maria Lipkau, Dennis Moser and Alexandre Navarro.
Discover Manrico Montero's music is maybe like meeting a kind of prophet of poetry that let us remember an Isaac Stern's quotation: "music is what is between notes".
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After several ep releases on various labels and netlabels (mandorla, archipel, iod) since 2004, Alexandre Navarro is proud to release his first CD album "ARCANE" for SEM label.
ARCANE means esoteric, hidden or mysterious... While not necessarily a conceptual approach for the album, ARCANE creates this sense of mystery through a blend of electric guitar experimentation, melody and field recordings.
A guitarist since the age of 15, Alexandre Navarro has been working with electronic tools for several years (laptop, sampler, software...). For this album, however, he found it necessary to make more of a direct connection with the music; more ‘organic’, lofi and instrumental, where the guitar naturally played a central role throughout the recording of the album. With the exception of a few other instruments (organ, sampler, flutes), the album was exclusively recorded with a microphone, a guitar, a valve amp and some effects.
In some ways, ARCANE has something tribal and primitive at its core. It is direct and essential, addressing the mysteries of creation, birth, death, life in general, in a poetic and nostalgic way.
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With The Green Kingdom LP, compositions blur the lines between soundscape and structure while keeping a sharp focus on melody with the guitar playing a central role, the album manipulated acoustic and electronic sources, sampled textures, noise and field recordings.
Imbued with a sense of "optimistic nostalgia", Mike Cottone soundworlds encourage introspective explorations and provide an escape from our sometimes hectic lives.
The Green Kingdom LP is the natural continuity of the highly acclaimed EP "Lucky Bamboo" released for free on ekonetlabel (iod) in June 2006.
