by joel chaffee
Being an English-speaking American, I don’t understand a word of Rauelsson’s debut LP, La Siembra La Espera Y La Cosecha. This is no harm, for it is music after all, and Cosecha is a lovely and powerful piece of it. Acoustic guitar picking through arpeggios are a staple, joined by vocals (often harmonies) with various percussive noises dangling around the back like snowflakes already fallen.
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Opener “Debutantes” builds gradually, with a violin eventually easing over the progression at song’s end, which is the climax. This is a pristine recording: the bells jangle with soft clarity, the guitar notes are firm and ring. Attention is given to the delicate (Are those shuffling feet at the beginning of “El Rio De Los Nudos”?). This song, too, makes many from few, piano chords struck and then hanging around, fading. At song’s middle the piano gets to some higher notes, a sheen of strings or keys sustains itself over top, and we’re going somewhere. These are songs that feel as though they are taking one somewhere, if only right here.
Dr. Raul Pastor Medal’s (Rauelsson’s mastermind) voice is steady, between a singer’s firm performance and a performer’s emotive plea. Everything is at least mildly mournful, but always pleasant and comforting, too. Here be no dragons. “Palidez,” boasting accordion, is pretty, but not charming. More dapper the latter gentleman. This can tend to the generic, but here does not. Due to their simple arrangements, these songs are knowable in an intimate way, in a live way. Listening, I want to dream, not talk. I want to lay down, not dance.
The listener will just about fall over when, third from last, “Raices” strikes a snare drum. One wonders what Rauelsson would sound like if he followed that path for the entire LP; and is just as pleased that he did not.
