by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

QOA is Argentinian producer Nina Corti, a musician and sound artist. SAUCO is her sonic journey, ‘crafted to cultivate poetic gestures amidst Fauna, Flora, Fungi, Mineral Waters, Wind and Earth’.

It is a kind of love letter to Argentinian natural history, bringing forward the natural inhabitants of the country and putting them in the spotlight.

What’s the music like?

In a word, fresh! There is an immediately appealing lightness to Corti’s touch, a weightless quality that means her music is almost always airborne through its lightness.

Natural phenomena are always close at hand, with sounds captured from the Argentinian wilderness. Each of the nine tracks are inspired by a lifeform native to the country, and so are effectively character studies.

Sauco is a kind of magical tree, reflected in its elusive light, whereas Liquen, starting close, ends up beyond the aural horizon. Muitu introduces a beat to steady the distant voices, while Lippia alba, a multi-branched shrub, is represented by music that spreads out in many different directions. By the time we get to Senna the music becomes minimal and the atmospherics take over, but the tables are turned by Anartia (a butterfly from the peacock family) whose dance is a riot of colour.

The musical language reflects QOA’s time spent as a member of a Gamelan collective, with vibrant hooks, flighty motifs and sudden, lush bursts of instrumental colour. These can all be glimpsed on the album’s most intriguing track, Cievrvo De Los Pantanos, a portrait of a marsh deer that is by turns playful, mysterious and elusive.

Does it all work?

It does. The wide sonic perspective Corti uses means the musical shapes are constantly shifting, their vibrant colours always on show.

Is it recommended?

Yes. This is very fresh and free music, elusive too – but always colourful and often joyful. QOA has made a musical celebration of nature, a charming and invigorating album

For fans of… Matthewdavid, Susumu Yokota, Terry Riley, John Cage

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Published post no.2,240 – Monday 15 July 2024