La Imagen en Silencio

Buenos Aires has strained connections with its hinterlands; beyond them, provincial Argentina has more in common with Bolivia or Mongolia than the strutting capital. Musicians like guitarist Nacho Eguía, born in BA, often turn to folk music for solace, escape and stillness. Opener ‘Milonga Madre’ is a slow-paced, crisply picked meditative piece. ‘Vidala Que Se Va’ is a slow-paced, delicately picked contemplative piece. ‘Muchas Vueltas’ is a slightly livelier, but still calmly, carefully picked piece. You got it, Señor Eguía doesn’t go for thrilling arpeggios, slabs of strum or percussive tricks. Presumably the title of the album alludes to the expansive silences around and between the notes, which come one at a time, like leaves from an ombú tree, or motes on the Andean wind. These are the images they conjure for me. Speaking of which, the closing song, ‘Paso Andino’, is the slowest of all, the picker perhaps tired and breathless after tramping to the pass. Across the tracks are the echoes of traditional patterns (milongas, vidalas etc), but it’s to Eguía’s credit that he incorporates them into his own defined style.

One song, the chamamé-influenced ‘Ñembo ‘E’, is a duet, with bandoneón player Matias Rullo; it’s a bit more upbeat, but not very. This is a fairly amateurish album of clean music – you can hear the screech of fingers moving along the fretboard – and it’s all quite beautiful in its slight, minimalist, somewhat picturesque way. It is very calming though, therapeutic even; then again Buenos Aires was always about therapy.