Rebecca Palacios |
Logroño, (EFE).- The guitarist from Rioja Pablo Sáinz-Villegas has assured, in an interview with EFE, that in his latest work, “The Blue Album”, he proposes “an immersive experience” through 14 compositions that evoke feelings of “intimacy, introspection and nostalgia”.
Sáinz-Villegas (Logroño, 1977), who has lived in New York since 2001, has chosen the date of June 9, La Rioja Day, to publish his new album, “as a nod” to his native land.
For this musician, “The Blue Album” exudes the blue aroma of emotions, through the interpretation of pieces by Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Philip Glass and Ryūichi Sakamoto, among other authors, from the 18th to the 21st century.
“I have chosen a very wide range in terms of aesthetics, styles and geographical and temporal origin of the composers, but all of them are united by the concept of intimacy because music is the language of emotions”, he has recounted.
With this work, he invites us to “look within, dream and share music with a candle”, in a personal dialogue “with oneself”.
In his opinion, “the guitar is already a very intimate instrument”, which invites us to get closer and share the music as if it were going to “tell a story in a whisper”.
For this reason, he has specified that, in his performances, he recreates “an emotional space in a very transparent way.”
immersive experience
This album is the first time that he has used a “quite new” audio system, called Dolby Atmos, which recreates the atmosphere and three-dimensional space in which the recording was made.
“For me, using this technique has been very interesting, because it has allowed me to replicate an immersive listening experience”, highlighted Sáinz-Villegas.
The album was recorded in the Príncipe Felipe de Oviedo auditorium in October 2022, with the Asturian sound engineer Fernando Arias, because the musician from La Rioja was fascinated by acoustics during a concert he gave in the chamber hall a year earlier.
“It’s a space that I love”, he added, “it invites us to recollection, which is why I thought of recording this intimate album there”.
Vital moment
The guitarist from Logroño, considered the successor of Andrés Segovia, has specified that he is in a personal moment of “great creativity and very expansive” in many areas of his life.
“Regardless of my personal moment, the part of looking inward has always been a constant in my life because, as a musician, that has been my most metaphysical, spiritual and emotional work to get to the essence of who you are,” he reflected.
In this sense, he has highlighted the effort made during his musical career to know himself in order to, from his vulnerability, transmit his personal essence to the public.
Thus, he has never forgotten to “share” his “perception of the world” with his audience and, as a musician, to remember that he has “a fascinating and extraordinary part of feeling life and perceiving the world through the senses”.
Through this “vulnerability” and the feeling of “listening to your heart and your instincts”, he believes that music comes out “in a natural way, like the key that opens the heart”.
World Tour
Sáinz-Villegas, who is resting in Puerto Rico after offering his last concert of the season there on May 27, has new recitals scheduled for July 1, when he will begin his international tour in the United States with the Utah Symphony.
During the summer he will also play in Munich (Germany) with the Münchner Philharmoniker; Jurmala (Latvia); will visit the Napa Valley Festival in California (United States); Siena (Italy); and Grafenegg (Austria).
The last summer concert will take him to his land, La Rioja, with a recital on August 20 in the church of San Martín, in the small town of Pradillo de Cameros, with just 65 inhabitants.
In the repertoire of this tour, he will include some pieces from “The Blue Album”, which he will combine with other works “more intense and moving, to create a dramatic framework and propose a more interesting journey for the public”, he concluded.