After a few years of labor looking for his personal sound, Cristina Len He has discovered his grasp key, and he has used it in an enormous approach. Len signature “TMLM” (Montebello, 24), an beautiful album, produced by Bronquio, which gallops electronica and people sounds, along with reconciling two antagonistic worlds: rural custom and concrete depth.
When I first heard “TMLM”and I do not know It ran via my physique. It was a sensation, typical of nerve and instinct, that advised me that what I had simply seen was not, in any case, one thing frequent. Whether it is its sound – atmospheric, lugubrious, incisive – or the album cowl, during which Cristina is seen taking on a liminal house, one thing concerning the album bewitched me. Perhaps it was the voice, or maybe the power to carry again the legendary Lorca lament with syncopated rhythms, making present these clichés of the invertebrate Spain of a century in the past, or maybe every part on the similar time. Be that as it might, nearly half a 12 months after the launch, that feeling is already a certainty: “TMLM” has begun to draw the eye of the nationwide scene. Nurtured by illustrious references reminiscent of Kanye West, Maria José Llergo, Frank Ocean or Rosalía herself, the primary album by Cristina Len has landed with the cadence of the processions and the Via Crucis. It is in that catharsis of opaque colours on which a stable line is based between the city sound and the longings and laments of Martiago, his city, and in addition the kilometer zero of his work.
Black is the totem
When I meet Cristina it’s a stunning afternoon in Barcelona; There is not any cloud that covers the golden gentle that permeates the avenue and the stone balconies that shut the very extensive Plaça de Francesc Macià on Diagonal. Only an opaque ingredient or an influence shade may rival such luminosity; and naturally, because it was an unwritten legislation, that ingredient needed to arrive, and it did. With the solar in her face and dressed fully in black, Cristina Len He was already ready for me close to the tram with the arrogance of somebody who can problem the king of stars and never blink for a second. It is certainly not a trivial act: the girl from Barcelona finds in that shade, black, the power of her artwork and her defects, which she sees as an everlasting circle, and in addition of a path that, removed from having been closed, has been closed. opens extensive in view of the long run.“It’s going to proceed to be very darkish […] I do not need to depart the darkness. I actually prefer it, I do not really feel prefer it. I hope my subsequent albums are black or grey”. Anyone would think about her, prejudice in hand, as somebody pessimistic and apocalyptic, to say the least; however nothing might be farther from the reality: 5 months after launching “TDLM”, And after greater than twelve years in music, Cristina causes within the current and does it rapidly. She is aware of what she needs, as a result of she has wished it for a very long time, and she or he is aware of that attaining it has been potential by having gone via fairly just a few correct names earlier than. Not in useless, shortly after settling in on the bar the place we’d speak from Rosalía to dying, passing via Martiago, the holistic circles or her grandparents, Cristina Len introduced a reputation to the fore: Maribel Sánchez.
Maribel Sánchez y Bronquio: Anatomy of a sound
“It’s marvelous”he affirms with affection, and it’s no marvel: he’s, most likely, one of many individuals who have made Len’s album probably the most potential. “I did a seek for who may assist me perceive the folklore somewhat. […] y Suddenly I discovered the Institute of Identities of Salamanca, and I began speaking to Maribel, a singing and percussion instructor. […] I went to see her and she or he introduced all of the devices, she gave me her file, a variety of books… It was tremendous cool. “I recorded it and from there I began sampling.”. I’ll inform you one factor: ask Cristina Len about his album, generally, requires an train in journalistic financial system. The themes and substories are nearly infinite. It is on this scenario, then, the place I made a decision to direct the dialogue in the direction of a particular path, and that’s exactly the one which obsessed me: sound. “The distorted bass, the treble of the bells… I had an thought of the ambiance I wished to carry, however I had no thought what it was going to sound like”. And right here lands the second identify and alchemist of a complete ambiance: Bronchius. Cristina, after abstracting in her head the sound she wished for her album, wanted to carry it right down to earth and really feel it. “He understands very properly what that music wants” says of the Andalusian producer, including: “He takes it [el sonido] to an space of darkness with shiny spots, a really intimate and melancholic place”. Just as she imagined.
Electronic or to not be: that’s the query
Listening to the sublimated artistic strategy of “TMLM”, with Cristina strolling hand in hand first with Maribel and later with Bronquio, I noticed that I couldn’t consider a extra present avant-garde than that subjugated to digital sound, which within the case of Len’s album, gave the ultimate form to probably the most folklore of the undertaking. Is digital the present finish of mainstream music, or city? What style do albums like “TMLM”? “I believe the distinction between digital and concrete is blurring. Electronics are used rather a lot in city music, and it appears to be the brand new pop. In the top I imagine that fusion is the idea of this new era and I believe that’s the place all of the artists are going to go.”. According to Len, this occurs as a result of “have 100 references […] base your self on completely different locations and do it out of your standpoint. For me the bottom line is to search out one thing common personally.”
Everything however dying
Beyond the sound, it’s inevitable to not give attention to the themes of the album: lament, mourning and dying. In these features, 2019 was a key 12 months in Cristina’s life, and in the long run, to grasp her musical future, first along with her EP “Alma Charra” (21) and now with “TMLM”. “In October my grandmother died in Martiago, and I didn’t cry; But after just a few months, every part manifested itself to me with nice nervousness, with nice worry of dying.” It would not be all. “And in December, whereas singing, I broke my vocal cords and needed to be taught to sing once more.”. Both occasions, slender in time and house, led to the start of a Cristina with deeper and extra cathartic tones. The Barcelona singer has confirmed to have introduced this metamorphosis to excellence. Now, though she is musically enveloped in darkish tones and is considerably drained after a very long time creatively racking her mind, Len has a few very clear issues to say: That she needs to carry out her album dwell (give her a gig, you will not remorse it!) and an antidote for the perfectionist and those that swim in circles: besides dying, after all, every part might be mounted.