‘Pasiones y Rituales’, the album
This album is the culmination of a project many years in the making which began in Matanzas, Cuba, where as a child I lived close to the port, on the fringes of the predominately Afro-Cuban neighbourhood, Simpson.
I lived to a soundtrack of the drums and the pianos, the overwhelming vibrations and intense emotions which are integral to this project. Composing the three pieces of this album would take me almost two decades.
During the recording process in London, I travelled to Matanzas to rehearse and perform one of the pieces, before I was able to finally complete the recording in London.
Each piece is dedicated to a member of my family. The album is a trilogy related to my personal life story.
LISTEN
QUIMERAS
About Quimeras
Quimeras, inspired by my aunt, musician and choir master, alludes to the bolero, central to Cuban and Latin popular music expressing intense
emotions.
ENCUENTROS
About Encuentros
Encuentros is dedicated to my mother, my first piano teacher, who taught me the art of feeling music, and to my father, an amateur percussionist and rumba dancer. This piece was written in Brixton, London, with the memory and the nostalgia of my own past, and the new richer musical and personal experiences with new colleagues and new people in my life.