A new Madrileño soundtrack. Guillermo Farré’s hushed vocals are buoyed by cinematic strings & brass arrangements, and the tight drums & percussion of Shawn Lee.
‘Ruinas Futuras’ was composed in fragments on phone voice memos, between fatherhood and office work. Slowly accumulated before their rediscovery one day on a train. Sketches of songs, intermingled by the sounds of babies crying. Piano, guitars, out-of-tune wordless vocals.
Guillermo Farré began working with regular soundtrack collaborator Remate to apply their cinematic production techniques to the classical song format, before the pandemic forced them to work apart, remotely. However, they turned this problem to their advantage, inviting disparate musical friends to collaborate with them. Shawn Lee, multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer in his own right, handled drums and percussion. Javier Lorente and Anita Steinberg supplied drums from Berlin. Adrian Utley and Aldous Harding collaborator Ali Chant mixed the record down in his Bristol studio.
The resulting album is a soothing balm. Crafted, intimate songs. Beautifully arranged, sometimes even recalling Stereolab, like on personal favourite “Mi prima Adriana”. Certainly an album for returning to on a wet Spring day, or equally on a sunny afternoon.
