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Review/ Santiago Salazar: "Arcade"

  Tobias

When photographed, Santiago Salazar has the habit of shielding his eyes from sight by pulling his baseball cap down to the hight of his noise. Might he have them closed most of the time?

His most recent publication on the elegant Macro Records Outfit certainly suggests a tendency for daydreaming and escapism: Deep electro basses swell and billow underneat bubbly acid melodies, discreet shaker shuffles swing and brim on top of byzantine string motives and the organic tension curve of these two tracks defies the mechanical metrum of rigid four-to-the-floor-action in favour of Jazz-infected dynamics. While the original version of „arcade“ floats through the sonic ether like a space vessel in search of a safe orbit, Stefan Goldman's remix takes a trip back in time to fuse mediaeval dulcimer elements with classical flute lines and dry, pumping kick drums. For over fourteen minutes, the piece seagues between moments of meditative introspection and trance-inducing calm on the one hand and powerful forward propulsion on the other.

Salazar (with a little help from his congenial partner Goldman) presents himself as a conductor of great dramaturgic sensibility and a talent for epic story-telling second to none. Which leaves one wondering what this man may be cooking up next from underneath his cap.
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