The Melchiades Estrada Band: Pink Radio (single)

Fluorescent, inspired, fascinating

Pink Radio by The Melchiades Estrada Band boasts an intriguing title and the weird beauty of a composite, multifaceted instrumental melody that bridges the colourful epopy of the '80s with the more introverted sophistication of the '90s, and at the same time illustrates the evolution of the composer's own musical universe and personal mythology. Its parts are held together by the thread of rhythm that unfolds in the background, like a rebellious planet with its own cadence of movement, which strangely keeps the rest of the orbits attuned to the universal harmony.

There is a surprise towards the end, an unexpected vocal part that sounds like a distant echo, a breath of wind that comes to whisper its secrets into the listener's ear; the fragmented, delirious poetry of the words reminds a little of Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan. A splendid reversal, a kind of intimate rumination - the moment when the music starts "thinking aloud", presenting the deepest, most essential aspect of itself, the human mind and soul behind the organisation of its elements.

When I was little, my grandmother had an old radio which operated on four big batteries and played non-stop from morning to afternoon, with a quality of sound that was surprisingly good for those years. Contrary to most people who get annoyed when the voice of a presenter interrupts their favourite song, the intervention of the human voice in the middle of the music has never really been unwelcome to me; instead of breaking the spell, it reinforced the feeling of being transported to a magical place where sounds and voices can mingle freely, purified, unobstructed by the limitations of physical/bodily existence.

The flight is brought to its conclusion by an actual radio advertisement, like the humorous moral of a fairytale helping the listeners land smoothly into reality, reminding them once more that perhaps this is what the journey was all about - an allegoric adventure on the waves of the Hertzian ocean. And maybe this is also an answer to the enigma of the title, confirming an impression that could have formed surreptitiously in the listener's mind: that the structure of the composition is in some way reminiscent of what can be heard when someone switches continually from one radio station to the next.

One more brilliant creation by a composer who excels in combining the abstract poeticality of his artistic vision with a robust interior architecture, and an elegant humor that both alleviates and underlines the quintessentially philosophical nature of his work.

NOTE: When I began writing this review, I was still member of Jamendo and the artist's technical admin, so I was unfortunately not allowed to post it on that site at the time this album was published. But I had once more the honour and pleasure to create the album cover for this wonderful work.