Gimenez, Albert

Artist: Albert Gimenez
P: 2000
Mare Nostrum contains one continuous live performance by Spanish guitarist Albert Giménez. He uses a drum machine and multi-track loops to create thick textures with a groove. Both process and results are reminiscent of Richard Pinhas's work with Heldon and Schizotrope. Since the invention of the E-Bow and digital real-time looping devices, this type of performance has spread among guitarists. Giménez does a good job at it, but sticks to the manual of tricks. His music remains firmly anchored in tonality and follows a soft curve that leads from new-agey soundscapes to more beat-driven sections and back. The drum machine is used crudely: when the musician fires up the dance beat, it bursts loudly, menacing the integrity of the piece. Mare Nostrum follows the middle of the road between the eery constructions of Robert Fripp, the claustrophobic assaults of late-'90s Pinhas, and the ethereal cycles of Rafael Toral. What this last sentence means is that Giménez's music is not new and lacks the character of its predecessors. Fans of trippy guitars with a completist complexion may be interested. Others should check out the aforementioned artists before going any further.

Artist: Albert Gimenez
P: 1998
Guitarist and ex-Neuronium member Albert Gimenez gathers imaginative musical ideas in this album, under a general focus approaching Ambient, Psychedelic Rock and Dark Space Music. Much of the music is icy, ghostly, radically electronic. There are slow passages with other lively ones. In the former, the structure is fluid, not being limited to a few fixed chords. In the latter, sequencers and percussion play a leading role driving the music
towards the Cosmic Sequencer trend and the Atmospheric Pop. "Maquinaria Espiritual" has a fast sequencer rhythm, and other pieces also have sequenced, yet more deliberate rhythms. The guitar synthesizers, played by Gimenez, have the leading role, although they are accompanied by some keyboard synths and electronic devices. The structure of the music consists, apart from the rhythm in the parts where there is such, of difused melodies that come and go, dense, atmospheric environments that surround these melodies, and occasional sound effects, that in some passages are an important part of the ambiance. The artist, in this occasion, has surrounded himself with several brilliant musicians who accompany him in the sequencers, keyboards and other instruments: Victor Nubla and Juan Crek from Macromassa, Dom F.
Scab and Anthony Seagarr from At-Mooss, Alain Wergifosse and Anki
Toner.
J. MUNNSHE