El Duddha by El Duddha

Behind ‘El Duddha’ is Colombian born artist Mateo Marín Calderón - he’s first homonym album is a collection of musicalized poems. As a concept, it encapsulates the pursuit of a purer and more spiritual life in the somehow antagonistic atmosphere of city-life, the encounter between the will for inner peace and the thrill of civilization, raw energy, clubs, competition, wealth, eroticism, dreams and the endless etcetera of modern life’s diverse paradigms. This spiritual tension, physically experienced as doubt, is merged into the music in an attempt to heal the perceived wound of a somehow dissociated life. The Spanish translation for the word doubt is "duda", which acoustically resembles the word "Buddha", suggesting a persistent oscillation between illumination or clearness and a confused or foggy consciousness, an interplay between a path both of spiritual growth and of further submersion in the urban labyrinths.

The music ranges from soft, tender melodies to elevated hymns. At times sweet and dancy and at times daring saxophone lines enhance the textures. Harmonically, the project roots itself in the jazz and bolero tradition, resonating with the latin american singer/songwriter scene. The forms of the songs go beyond the usual chorus/verse structure, proposing a novel sense of composition, based on the particular journey that the poetic images bring about. Feelings of longing, doubt, confusion and owe are to be heard and felt, as the artist speaks of the inmortal topics of love, time, heartbreak, disillusion and fascination - wondering even into the reflections of language itself as a mystery and a instrument for healing. Throughout, textures ranging from straight forward acoustics settings to complex contemporary sound design take place. Acoustic guitars are of outermost prominence, as well as a surrounding double bass lines that merge with both drum machines and percussive seeds. At some points, textures develop into a wild see of colors; at others, silence strikes the ear, accentuating a neuralgic verse.

Behind el El Duddha is guitar player, singer, writer, composer and MA in Improvisation from the HMT Leipzig, Mateo Marín Calderón, born in Manizales, Colombia. After a long incursion in the genres of jazz, contemporary, experimental and improvised music with projects in Bogotá’s and Leipzig’s independent scene, he landed on songwriting, as a way of giving life to his poetry and that from others.

elduddha.com