Although it was not published physically, but can be accessed from digital platforms, they took care that the presentation was as similar to an album as possible. As the title suggests, it is the third work by The Sound of Books, the duo made up of Gabriela Mirza and Santiago da Rosa, which they were able to make a reality thanks to financing from the Regional Fund for Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
“In each album we consider different things: the first [Una bebeteca] was made up of other people’s songs, in the second [De upas y trotecitos] we made our songs both in music and lyrics, while in this one they are all our musicalizations of texts from others,” says Da Rosa. “I think it is Chapter 3 also because it is another way of saying something of what we have been saying but it brings another part, something new,” adds Mirza.
In this game of continuity and novelty, one of the particularities of this work is the confluence of numerous visiting artists, friends and traveling companions, which gives it a variety of voices and styles that, at the same time, form a clear example of the way of working in dialogue and company that they are used to, allows them expressive power and greater possibilities.
“In the project it was planned that there would be three collaborations –Patricia Robaina, Gabriela Rodríguez and Juancho [Juan Bentancur]–, but the links were added and other guests came and it was great. For us it is beautiful because they are all people that we admire very much and we were lucky that he gave us the little piece of him and followed our heads,” says Mirza. On the other hand, he adds: “We liked that. We are very concerned that everything sounds the same because there are two of us and the resources are the ones that are exposed. So, just as we are concerned about acting, being able to generate with books a diversity of climates or sound, of harmony, in a record as well, and we plan to help the attention of the listener. “Being us too, because I keep listening to it and I feel that it is something of ours, I don’t feel it is foreign even though there is a lot of intervention from others.”
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Poets from here and there
Among the texts that they set to music, very diverse voices and from different generations appear, from Federico García Lorca to Mauricio Rosencof, passing through Circe Maia, Sophia de Mello, Carol Libenson, Paula Frankel and Mercedes Calvo, among which the interpretation of Mirza and Da Rosa weaves a framework that finds its material precisely in the strength and poetic delicacy of each of the originals. That heterogeneous list is, in some way, a map of the duo’s influences. In the case of Mercedes Calvo from Salta, she is an author to whom they always return and the volume of her material present in this set of songs is notable. “There are several things about Mercedes: a text of Ride me where Natasha is [Ortega, de Dragón Dorado] guest; and of The mirrors of Anaclara We include three songs and two read poems, in one we play a cat with Juancho and Pedro [Rossi, el productor] and in another of the songs there is Patricia Robaina”, details Mirza.
Da Rosa and Mirza’s artistic work goes hand in hand with their experience running the Sound of Books library and the way they share books. They used, they say, abundant material that they had in their hands: “On this album we included books that we had set to music under an external pretext, sometimes for an editorial commission; others, as with The mirrors…, because we wanted to do a dance-theater work. They are all songs from the books that we already used for something. For example, we had not set Rosencof’s to music, but I read it in Trampolín de Libros. They were already present in us,” Mirza recalls. “And there were things that we had done that were not well recorded, like some that we had done with Amanuense in the pandemic, which were recorded in a very homemade way during the pandemic,” adds Da Rosa.
Same as in Upas and trotitos, they worked with the Argentine guitarist Pedro Rossi in the arrangements and artistic production, and with Santiago Santoro as sound engineer. Furthermore, they highlight that “working with Pedro is very different from the previous one.” “It coincided with the fact that we went on tour to Argentina and we were able to go to work at his house in advance. Furthermore, the other time he was there as a producer but although he sang on two songs, he had not played the guitar, and on this one we proposed that he do so,” comments Da Rosa.
all the voices
In the same way, the integration of guests allows you to place them in a broader panorama and explore their interests and connections. “The last thing that happened was “The Beginnings”, the song we did with Dúo Karma, with whom a friendship arose when they played at the library’s birthday last April. And there is Gabi Rodríguez, who is not my godmother but is like an aunt, who closes the album with ‘A poem that we like’, about Balam, rain and the house, a divine book by Julio Serrano, which Pedro thought would have everyone who participated sing at the end, including the sound technician. There is Carla Costamagna in the opening song, who answers us with ‘Here too’ [de Paula Frankel]”That Carla was answering from the other side of the Río de la Plata and from her library, which is On the Other Side of the Tree, was very significant,” Mirza highlights. Da Rosa complements regarding the drift that she naturally added more and more voices: “The number of participations are sometimes decisions and other times, consequences. For example, we invited Patricia, we went to Melo to rehearse with her and we showed her one of the songs we were doing by her, and she said: ‘It would be nice for Ernesto to be on this one.’ [Díaz]”.
Completed work
Although they already presented it, before it was ready on the platforms, on the anniversary of the Shangrilá Cultural Center, in December, and in a school in Ecilda Paullier, the idea is to make a presentation in the library, although there is still no date. They do say that they were happy because “the album was growing compared to what the original project was” and they liked “the result and hearing so many close people and friends getting involved.” That shared enjoyment can be clearly perceived when listening to the 12 songs that make up Chapter 3.
Chapter 3by Gabriela Mirza and Santiago da Rosa, 2023. On platforms.
2024-01-20 03:31:13
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