One of the side effects of the disasters experienced in recent years, and not the least appreciable, has been the need for many musicians, from here and abroad, to rediscover the therapeutic power of songs. Somehow we have to compensate for the darkness that surrounds us, and music continues to be a powerful motivator.
The man from Almeria Until Oyonarte undertook an intimate and confessional path with his previous “Dreams and Storms”, which he continues and expands on his magnificent new album. Trusting your most sensitive, personal and delicate side with jewels like “Between you and me”, he undresses trusting in a wise and serene melancholy with which he delivers eleven songs of a work that opens up more to pop environments and instrumentation.
Oyonarte does not hide its influences –from The Beatles to Elliott Smith or Leonard Cohen– in warm, austere and direct compositions that musically and lyrically go to what matters and too often we take for granted. An essentiality without stridency that is transferred to the classicism of the arrangements, performed by fellow musicians, including Joaquín Pascual who has much in common with the musician’s vision, as well as the elegant strings of Phillip Peterson (Nada Surf, Lana del Rey).
Living in the present, being grateful to those we have by our side, shouting less, accepting who we are: these are the universal values that exude songs from an accomplished craftsman like “Advance” or the magnificent “Way of being” –with its beautiful string arrangements and its Beach Boys-esque chorus–, the crepuscular “Sink” o “Life is a Dream”. They complete an album as elegant as it is full of those apparently small incentives that fill life.