Els altres by Balago
Press release
Two years have passed between “El demà” (Foehn, 2018), whose title already foresaw the trajectory, and point of being of Balago, and “Els altres” (Foehn, 2020), notwithstanding the creative pulse and the musical idea of David Crespo’s project, have been completely reformulated. Already alien to any conventional structure, to any classical song concept, with astonishing freedom of movement, the seventh album by the La Garriga band delves into the field of sound collage with unexpected comfort: three full-length pieces, among the 13 and 23 minutes, make up the backbone of the riskiest, disruptive, and radical launch dated to the line-up precedent.
The three pieces that make up the album are a universe of its own, full of nooks, winks, declared, and undeclared influences, subliminal messages, intentions, script twists, indecipherable samples, and ideas, infinite ideas. It might seem like a mixed bag of small sound fragments joined together on the surface, but in reality, all these pieces build a captivating story with a cinematic pulse. Balago continues to move in that no man’s land, but so distinctive and recognizable that its name bears, between ambient, the soundtrack, library music, and experimental electronics. Still, in the renewed construction of his discourse, “Els altres” proposes an unparalleled leap in quality within his discography framework. Crespo plays at will with tempo, textures, structure, and emotion, and from this bet, three small and devastating symphonies emerge to be listened to in silence, in solitude, and with a full predisposition to enter an immersive dark and a pessimistic universe that invites immersion.
Because “Els altres,” whose title alludes to others, to non-humans, also manages to put a soundtrack to our moment. Crespo and a web of musical sparks manage to transfer his hopeless, disbelieving, and catastrophic conception of the human being to a multi-layered sound mosaic that finds beauty and magnificence in horror and desolation.
David broc
Credits
Produced, recorded and mixed by Balago
Mastered by Guim Serradesanferm
Artwork by 11Invisibles
Foehn Records, 2020
