Listen a fragment of Lullaby for Lali
Listen a fragment of Lullaby for Lali
An enigmatic and seductive lullaby. (Barcelona, 1974) brings to light a small jewel on vinyl that represents a new way of approaching the musical composition hitherto unknown in his career. Lullaby is a song for Lali with two faces, one unexpected object with great presence of the melodic element that stands out for its intensity and pure beauty in a vast discography which has always been dominated by the experimental electro-acustic, noise and resonant objects. Fages -a regular and featured improvisator and dynamist of the Barcelona scene for more than 10 years, has played alongside musicians enshrined as , and - lists in “Lullaby for Lali” the testimony of earlier works for solo guitar like “Cançons per a un lent retard” (Etude 2007) or “Al voltant d’ un paral./el” (Etude 2008), but the desire not to pigeonhole himself has led him to work first time compositing in a studio. “Lullaby for Lali” is not a disk of improvisation: The result of a long and laborious process to get an approach, one electric and another acustic, of a single musical idea, where sound flirted with silence and suggestive soundtrack ambience. Two ways to represent the feeling of mystery, of Night and eternity, like an endless dream.
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“It’s pop music, informed by , , surf-twang guitar and avant-blues. It is, perhaps most saliently, seductive and addictive listening.”
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A lovely LP by the ever-surprising Fages (guitars, melodica, electronics, field recordings), in the company of (guitaret, metallophone, electronics). The same piece occupies both sides, first acoustic, then electric. It's a really enchanting mixture of extended song form and extraneous sounds, the former via guitar, metallophone and melodica, expounding several gentle, quasi-melodies, pastoral and, yes, lullaby-ish, floating over and among bowed metal, arcane electronics and ambient recordings. A real joy if your taste, like mine, doesn't preclude objects of shining beauty.
- (Just Outside)
Also on Etude Records is a record by , the guitar player from Spain, who delivered some pretty interesting improvised music in the past. He too gets the sole credit on the front cover, and is indeed responsible for electric and acoustic guitar, melodica, electronics and field recordings, but there is also who plays guitaret, metallophone and electronics (plus artwork). But the two compositions they perform are written by Fages, so there you go. There is a 'Lullaby Electric' and a 'Lullaby Acoustic'. The electric version is more drone based, with nicely woven, sustaining sounds at the bottom of the piece, over which the guitar strumms away freely (but coherently). With somewhere half way through the metallophone coming, we are almost dealing with a delicate piece of post rock music. The acoustic side doesn't sound as acoustic I'd say, with the first part also quite drone based, and the second part of this piece is more about some lower end bass tones, before landing indeed in that acoustic terrain. An excellent record that should no doubt appeal to anyway who likes post rock, the more melodically edge of improvisation and great craftsmanship.
- (Vital Weekly)
On a glacial January afternoon, the sky stuck in a will-it-snow? kind of grey, I decide to play Lullaby For Lali expecting stridency, if not blasphemy. Can't explain why, especially considering the relative tranquillity of Ferran Fages' recent solo releases and the tenderness of the sepia-tinged cover photo, and I feel a right fool when a slow sequence of swelling glissandi and sparse acoustic plucks begins, leaving me staring at the void. Wonderful, indeed. But it changes after a while, and the real lullaby starts: strummed guitars, a basic melody played on a metallophone, the simplicity of a children's tune. Still, there's something underlying the apparent naiveté: the oscillation lingers on, destabilizing the mood just a bit before elliptical cycles return to end the story. The second side comprises an "electric" version (though my copy of the LP seems to have both parts and labels reversed), a chain of clear-cut chords and stagnant layers revealing a solid harmonic building characterized by powerful lows. The growing tension turns this simple progression into an original stab at contemporary minimalism: think Tony Conrad recorded in someone's living room minus the grating overload, accompanied by Loren Connors at his best. Eventually, guitar (and guitaret) remain alone, a pitch-shifted duet occurring in between a serene disembodiment. Fages and dedicatee Lali Barrière have managed to craft a precious little object, not distant from certain intimate pages of Jim O'Rourke's diaries.
- (Paris Transatlantic)