review

Textura

Review of original Under the Spire CD version of 'For José María'

In a rather surprising follow-up to 2009's Type release I Could Not Love You More, Rameses III gives us a single-track EP dedicated to José María' Bellido, a pianist, husband, father, and athlete who was stricken with crippling diabetes. It's a plaintive and melancholy setting that features, in its opening minutes, the voice of José's daughter, Cristina Bellido, speaking in Catalan and a simple piano theme repeating overtop a thrumming drone. That theme eventually disappears, leaving the gently swirling drone to persist in its absence. Strings slowly advance to the forefront and Cristina's voice briefly returns, after which the strings swell in volume and size. The piece carries on without interruption, growing ever more epic as the deepening mass of sound is joined by field recordings of children's voices. Like everything I've heard by Rameses III, For José María' impresses as a wonderfully executed and realized work, even if the release's overall scope is circumscribed somewhat by its EP length.


2010/07/00