#isasa

[shocotate]

星の子コレクション

Here is my Hoshi no Ko Collection, including gacha figures, pin badges and keyrings

[dustedmagazine]

Isasa — Canciones De Amor (Repeditor / Feeding Tube)

Canciones De Amor is the fifth solo album by the Spanish guitarist Isasa. The sturdy thumb-driven rhythm and bucolic vibe of his early recordings under that name (like a lot of folks playing guitar soli these days, he has a distant rock and roll past, most notably in the band Room With A View) betrayed a strong Takoma school influence. The sound of Canciones De Amor continues an evolution away from the fields plowed by John Fahey, Glenn Jones, and Jack Rose, but it holds close to a chief tenet of their work — that music played on a steel-stringed acoustic guitar can take you on an emotional journey.

The LP takes advantage of its inevitable split to divide the music into solo pieces and more layered works. Isasa’s picking has become more delicate and reflective than on earlier LPs, and as the first sequence progresses, the tunes get longer, slower, and more elaborate. It finishes with a piece whose title, “Carta A Mi Joven Yo” (“A Letter To My Younger Self”), amounts to a missive telling Isasa-the-younger that it’s going to be okay to settle down. “Firmamento” begins side two with a transition of scene and sound. Isasa’s guitar seems to loom out of a still synthesizer-scape. From there, things brighten considerably, as the voices of loved ones pop up in tunes that are subtly dressed up with lap steel and piano. One track is named after his spouse, another after one of the children in his house, and two more kids contribute voices to a third.

Isasa’s trip has a very personal destination, and each element plays a part in telling the story.

The album’s titular love songs celebrate home life, and as member of the household takes their place, the additional layers take the music away from the stage. As it grows more elaborate the music becomes more comforting. It’s as though the composer wants his audience to know that as much as he’s happy that they’re listening, he is not going to be hanging out by the edge of the stage, because there are people he wants to see at home. And if he doesn’t come back to the club for a while, perhaps you can just listen to this record,  kicking back someone you love. 

Bill Meyer

[isasaguitarra]

Vinyl is here! You can pre-order it now and get the exclusive coloured edition! Only in my bandcamp site: isasa.bandcamp.com Thanks! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Habemus vinilos! Si hacéis el pre-order, podréis conseguir la edición en vinilo azul que sólo está disponible por bandcamp: isasa.bandcamp.com Gracias!

[vikautofocus]

ISASA + ENCONO + LOS MANISES 08 sept. @ La Faena II RealmenteBravo, 17′ @lacastanya / @bcoredisc

[dustedmagazine]

Isasa — Insilio (La Castanya)

Insilio by Isasa

Conrado Isasa filters a rich tradition of Spanish and Catalan guitar through the lens of American Primitive picking, with echoes of Fahey, Jack Rose and Glenn Jones showing through lines of liquid, rounded clarity. In the end, the music is more reminiscent of Appalachian back hollows than the gypsy caves of Granada, though, of course, the line is not so hard and bright. Some in the American Primitive lineage do draw from flamenco and Spanish classical styles—Peter Walker and Sir Richard Bishop come to mind. Though Isasa mostly doesn’t foreground these influences, they’re there.

The first two tracks, for instance, reference Catalonia—the first overtly in the title which is “Homenaja a Cataluῆa” and the second through the language, as “Tinc Ganes de Veure’t” means “I want to see you in Catalan.” “Homenaja” begins the disc in a ruminative space, its slow strums left to hover, its flurries of picking punctuated by homely squeaks of string. The melody, country pure and simple, emerges like a Polaroid developing, pushing up through the surface of picking and then sinking back down again. “Tinc Ganes de Veure’t” runs a bit starker and less flowery, a pendulum swing between notes repeating like the thought you can’t shake at 3 a.m.

Elsewhere, though, the sounds evoke a bucolic America. “Arquitecto Tenista” swaggers in porch country manner a la Jack Rose’s ragtime sessions, while “Cuesta Ramon,” coaxes eerie vibrating atmospheres out of slide and pick, like Rose again, but in a transcendental mode. You can hardly play acoustic blues like this without a nod to John Fahey, and here Isasa makes his homage explicit in thoughtful, evocative “Copla para John Fahey.” The cut is spare, but set against an ambient drone that captures some of the master’s blend of quotidian folk and gnostic mystery.

Throughout, Isasa pursues his ends with a meditative clarity. Every note seems surrounded by a golden glow, and there is plenty of time to consider the last one before the first intrudes again. It is the sort of record that changes depending on when and how you listen, reflecting something inside of you as well as the notes on guitar. The first few times it played for me, it seemed to reflect the stark grey winter around me. Now, I hear it again, and green pushes through the crack. It is, all in all, a very good record in its quiet way, reflecting multiple guitar traditions in a pensive, self-searching way that makes them seem intimate and personal.  

Jennifer Kelly

[vikautofocus]

ProSyrianRefugees Poster ISASA + ITA + LOS MANISES (31/05) atfcs, 

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Isasa - Canciones de Amor

Madrid-based guitarist Conrado Isasa returns with what might be his finest effort yet — an album that is filled with gorgeous textures, sensitive playing and rich, resonating tones. The first half of Canciones de Amor is in a mostly straightforward guitar soli mode, with Isasa's gossamer melodies unfurling patiently. The second half is a bit more adventurous, with harmonium drones, lonely lap steels, sweet, wordless vocals from Trice and some unusual production techniques. It all works wonderfully, evoking a sense of stillness and calm that you'll want to revisit again and again.

[sunkentreasurecove]