Nicolas Jaar has dual nationality (American and Chilean) but this is not his only duality. He had his festive phase in his project Against All Logic (2 compilations of his dance-floor works, full of disco and transcendental electro in it). But when it returns to its original name, the tone is much more introspective and disturbing. Agitated by the pitiful states of his 2 homelands (the smell of persecution in Chile and the authoritarian push of the USA), Cenizas is the mirror of his tortured soul. This is followed by a very nice collection of songs out of any label, like a soundtrack of bittersweet ambient dreams.
Sound ash
Cenizas immediately sets the tone: "ashes" in Spanish, it may sound like an anxiety-provoking prescience of the deadly wave of the coronavirus. To listen to Cenizas is to be the privileged witness of Nicolas Jaar's psyche, of his unspeakable messages, real passages between the harshness of reality and the lightness of sounds. Duality, in addition to its 2 festive and melancholic facets, is also expressed intramural, in this cake, a mixture of escape and threats. If we are between 4 walls 23 hours a day in these times of confinement, a book, a film can help us escape. We can also help ourselves to better accept our insulation as such, a cocoon, a mixture of protection and closed doors. The perfect disc for this.
Nicolas Jaar is looking for new comforts
The ease (which does not rhyme with poverty) of his formidable project Against All Logic will not be able to serve the goal that Cenizas has set himself. In the song Menysid, he will rather draw on the side of James Blake's instrumentals, slow ambient rhythms. Agusto will summon the gravity of a large clarinet, between 2 worn ritornelles of a muffled piano. The title track, sung, whispers a response to previous outbursts, whether Sirerns in 2016 or his first and equally melancholic Space is Only Noise. Everything is a bit muted, no hits or singles, nothing separates: it's like a whole that you have to listen to Cenizas. A background sound never far from the light: witness Faith Made of Silk , the reassuring tunnel exit. But still acknowledging the painful passage of confinement, experienced as salutary. This album is just as much, certainly. Nicolas Jaar will be at the Days Off festival at the Cité de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris on July 4, 2020 (subject to confirmation in view of the pandemic). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3HQugCIUsY
