Back in 2018, Naarm/Melbourne-based reissue label Left Ear Records released "Grata Compañía", a concise five-track compilation of some of the choicest cuts Respuesta Alternativa (The Alternative Response) released on his "85 / 86" cassette-only album in 1987. Six years on, Left Ear Records have returned to Respuesta Alternativa's distinctly Asturian wellspring with "Del Silencio", a collection of previously unreleased music recorded between 1987 and 1990.
The project of Asturias-born Spanish musician Jesus Mª Catalan and his longtime studio collaborator Julián C. Pérez, "Del Silencio", picks up where "Grata Compañía" left off, serving us up seven slices of studio magic dreamed up with drum machines, synthesisers, guitars and vocal samples. Given Respuesta Alternativa's Spanish origins and use of glossy, sunkissed synth pads, Soul II Soul/The Grid style drum programming and vivid moments of electro, progressive rock, ambient and fusion style magic, downtempo songs contained like "Del Silencio (Playa De Gavieiro)" and "Asturtxal" sit very comfortably in a floaty, Balearic space.
That said, Catalan made a key point when Left Ear asked him about the relationship between his music and the Balearic islands. As he put it, "The distinction in the Balearic and Asturias Islands is marked by the different character of its people and the incidence of the weather, where the sea influences the Mediterranean Sea of the Balearic Islands is a calm sea. The Cantabrico de Asturias Sea is stormier”
As such, Catalan has always sought to craft music that reflected his surroundings in the Asturias islands. You can hear this in the structure of his songs, where, as Left Ear Records put it, "Lush breezy passages echoing calm ocean days and others reflecting sudden turns in conditions, weaving a stormier, more confronting layer into his already distinct sounds."
Del Silenco is available for purchase in vinyl and digital formats through Left Ear Records here.
