Preceded by a single, “Canto A La Paz“, that included remixes by Dandara and Jin Yerei, Pol Nada‘s latest project takes us back to the roots of folklore. On La San Llamarada the producer refreshes the compositions of mythic Argentine folkorist Linares Cardozo, using just small strokes from the digital world, making it a stripped down digital folklore that resembles more of the original chamamé than the ethnic electronica we are used to listening to these days.

Through often dark and profound interpretations, voice and guitar are the driving elements, with very raw and authentic results. This is the kind of music you could listen to in rural Argentina, but pushed forward with a contemporary level of production, that you will not only experience through this release, but also through a forthcoming second album that will come out later this year and feature further electronic remixes. It will be a tribute of sorts to Cardozo, who like Pablo Jacobo (aka Pol Nada) was born in La Paz, Entre Ríos.

The first song, “Como Los Pájaros”, is a manifesto of intentions. Here Cardozo’s words are focused on the mission of singing, just as with the bird, taking the music to everyone, giving it freedom forever, as if that freedom is more than an objective, but an instrument to compose without limits. Other songs are more straight forward, melancholic exercises involved in remembering hometowns and family like “Canción De Cuna Costera”, where he describes poetically the little elements that make him what he is now, or that he was, depending if you are taking the words as they came out of Linares Cardozo or the intensity that Pablo puts on them.

Keeping the original music of our countries alive seems a real mission today, especially when the digital era is homogenising the tastes of the population, mass consumption arriving at even our deepest choices, like the music we like to listen to. Getting in touch with our primal emotions is possibly the key that Pol Nada is researching with this very elemental music, placing value in local heroes by showing respect but also with forward looking eyes.

La San Llamarada is available now on Fértil Discos’ Bandcamp

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