We've known Alejandro Cohen at Test Pressing for some time. Way back when he did a mix for us of Proyeccion Folklórica (Folkloric Projection) a musical genre which stems from Argentina in the '60s. You can check that HERE as it's very very good. He is also part of the Pharaohs project who released a mini-album for International Feel when I was working with the label and is a long term supporter of quality music via his work at dublab and more in Los Angeles. Somewhere in there he has found the time to make a new album under his own name called 'Chamber of Tears' and very lovely it is too.
'Instances of Silence' opens the album and its a short palette cleanser and sign of things to come. It's organic and textured with gentle tones and rain-like percussion. 'American Primitive' arrives and with it comes a lovely melody. It's short at under two minutes but very charming. 'In Safe Gardens' brings the outdoors inside with gentle tones and soft soothing melodies. Guitars interplaying... 'Seven Dolphins' takes us further into space with reverb and rung out guitars moving away in the distance and 'Penguin' wears its heart on its sleeve and you can feel the nod of the album towards the great Simon Jeffes and his Penguin Cafe Orchestra. 'Del Mar' closes the A side and its the first time we really have percussion to drive the tracks in any way and it really really works... A perfect close to the A side.
'Heart Shaped Rock' and 'Sail On, 1969' lead us on with time to stop and pause. I have to say this album is really full of charming melodies. Such a nice listen especially when soundtracking the diving in the Olympic games which is currently on silently in the background... 'A Very Quiet Place' is exactly that and 'Otherwise' brings the one and only vocal on the album and it's a beautiful thing. More please...
As the album comes to its close with 'Chamber of Tears Parts 1 + 2', the background ambience playing as much a part as the guitar itself, we arrive at 'Deep Blue Dream' which is one of my favourite tracks on the album. It's taut with tight melodies and almost like a very gentle take on shoegaze. Definitely an area Cohen sits comfortably in and a place to revisit for me...
Albums like this are like little pieces of solitude that will stay with you for a long time. It's has far more to get lost in than an ambient album but provides the same sort of feeling of calm in the chaos and lets be honest we all need a bit of that. Lovely stuff.
'Chamber of Tears' will be released on September the 6th 2024 on Geographic North. You can pre-order 'Chamber of Tears' HERE on Bandcamp.
