Paris​/​Lisbon by Ernesto Diaz-Infante

 

Ernesto Diaz-Infante has been around making music since at least 1990's as far as I remember and I have been acquainted with his music since 1999.

This album is a documentary of his 20th anniversary trip to Paris and Lisbon with Marjorie Sturm, a filmmaker and educator, Ernesto's wife.

It is a set of 14 tracks each not longer than 4 minutes. Each of them is a little landscape of sound - improvised but having pretty tight structure. As with everything that Ernesto is doing - the emphasis on the relationship between the composer and his instrument is a paramount - it is an elongation of his creative imagination and his individual way of expressing ideas through it. Whether it is an acoustic or electric guitar - he has always something interesting to say.

It is also a study of dynamics - on this particular set where his main instrument is acoustic - it has the specificity of tonal frequencies and also the character that is based in the physical features of acoustic guitar and the strings Ernesto is using.

He is opening a book, a sesame of sounds and imaginative themes that speak volumes about his distinct sound and an interplay between himself and his instrument as well as his roots and education. It is often impossible to go beyond the idiom, you have grown up in but Ernesto is a mature artist who is able to make this decision and approach it freely. And he never fails, developing his own idea of improvisation.

Presence of Marjorie on a few tracks brings nice freshness to those sessions and make it even more natural.

I am wondering what will be the next stop in his musical journey.  

released June 10, 2024

Ernesto Diaz-Infante - acoustic guitar

Accompanied by Marjorie Sturm - Nepalese flute (tracks 9, 10, 14)

(Tracks 1-4) Recorded by Ernesto Diaz-Infante at Hotel du Dragon, Paris, France, June 2-7, 2023 and (Tracks 5-14) recorded by Ernesto Diaz-Infante in an apartment in Lisbon, Portugal, June 8-14, 2023.

Edited and mastered by Ernesto Diaz-Infante at Next Door to the Jefferson Airplane Studios, San Francisco, California, June 2023.

Bandcamp