Album Review: Federico Durand - Música para Manuel

The beginning of a year usually brings a bit of a drought when it comes to new releases worth giving a shit about. Sure, there’s been a couple of high points, a few things that were aight, and then a lot I wish I hadn’t wasted my time listening to—but, really, we’re all just kind of biding our time until Kanye’s new album has a release date.

An incredibly welcoming breath of fresh air arrived today in the form of Music For Manuel, which is the translated title of the new release from ambient/experimental artist Federico Durand.

Manuel is a reissue of sorts. It was originally released as a tour-only, two song cassette on Durand’s 2014 tour of Japan. It’s now been expanded into a five-track release, reissued via Hibernate—the CD version sold out prior to the actual on-sale date, but it lives on digitally on the label’s Bandcamp page.

Durand himself, as a performer, is a master of restraint, and it’s a talent that only gets better with each subsequent release—whether it be his own solo work, or his collaborative joints, like 2013’s Saudades, released under the name Melodia. He’s incredibly deliberate in how fragile and gorgeous his pieces are—merging the sounds of nature with an almost child-like, curious, tentative aesthetic; quiet, somber, introspective, and most of all: evocative. I’ve said, like, a million times on this blog that the best ambient and experimental music evokes feelings, and Durand is seriously the fucking best at creating a heavy, almost unbearable, sense of longing, loss, and nostalgia.

Manuel is dedicate to Durand’s grandfather, and the first two pieces on the recording are akin to the feeling of Brian Eno’s Music For Airports—very meditative, but also impressively emotional, without being, like, overbearing or direct about it. The tracks, all untitled, unfold slowly, taking their sweet time to envelop you into their comforting, yet heartbreaking, atmospheres.

The additional three pieces on this reissue are not so much “cut from the same cloth” as the original two compositions, but they are undoubtedly Durand. The third and fifth selections are structured around slow, warbled sounding tape loops, with some additional, vague instrumentation; while the fourth relies on his interest in chimes and bells—something that was explored in great detail on the Saudades album—giving the track an organic, very present feeling.

Manuel clocks in at 40 minutes, but it’s such an astounding and imaginative listen, you kind of don’t want it to end, so starting it up again with the first piece is a very easy, almost reflexive thing to do. With Music For Manuel, Durand proves, yet again, how powerful experimental music like this can be when place in the hands of an innovator.

Música para Manuel is out now as a digital download, via Hibernate.