Rauelsson w/ Peter Broderick

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4...according to our Ant on Fri 28 Jan, 2011.

This collaboration is the result of more than half a year of Raúl Pastor Medall and Peter Broderick swapping files electronically and was later finalized in the physical world. Raúl sings in Spanish so I'm afraid the vocal themes are a mystery to me (what no subtitles???) but he sings beautifully over layered guitars, strings and reverberating pianos. There are two tracks the first of which 'El Lobo, La Liebre Y La Panza Del Burro' has a distinct pastoral flavour evoking images of playing in long grass and lying down looking up at the sun while feeling the joys of the natural world envelope you. Peter's piano playing is as haunted as ever and the pairing of both artists is a meeting that works in every sense. Although clearly the product of much hard work, the tracks flow naturally and don't feel too overworked or laboured. Clearly both skilled musicians this track retains a sense of naivety and vulnerability which is appealing. 'Un Castillo, Un Molino, Un Mapa Y Un Plan' emanates a more traditional Spanish guitar sound complete with vocal harmonies. This tune is bursting with melancholy and am sure will strike a huge number of listeners straight in their hearts.

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Réplica’ is a new Rauelsson record. Spanish-born, Portland OR-based Raúl Pastor
Medall and multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick recorded and co-produced ‘Réplica’
collaboratively. The album comprises of two pieces of music, most of which revolve
around layered guitars, reverberating pianos, strings, and haunting, atmospheric vocals.
In appreciation to the renaissance of the vinyl era, the two pieces of music were born to
be side -a- (14:29 min) and side -b- (21:56 min) of a record.
After some preliminary work sending tracks back and forth via electronic
correspondence for more than half a year, Raúl and Peter finally got together in Oregon
in July 09, and spent an entire week finishing the album; recording pianos in a preelementary
school class, opening windows in a house in SE Portland for the chance
sounds to be a part of their recordings, placing a field recorder on a tire swing that was
hanging from an old oak tree, recording themselves running in circles around such oak
tree, using bushes and stepping onto rocks as percussion, retreating for a couple of days
to finish the album on a barn near Carlton, OR, where Peter’s dad lives..., they just let
their imagination go free with not other principle than enjoying music and their time
together.
‘Réplica’ is a sonic fountainhead, a journey of sounds and words. Rich in texture and
structure, even epic and quite experimental on some passages, the record also presents
the most introspective and bare folk songs Raul’s has written to date. Beyond his role as
co-producer and player of a wide-range collection of instruments, Peter’s main
contribution in ‘Réplica’ is a series of interludes and improvisations created to
interconnect Raúl’s songs within each piece. Some of these improvisations were
recorded over foggy soundscapes created by multi-talented music/visual artist Chad
Crouch. Peter’s sorrowful violins rise and fall delightfully, opening and closing spaces,
and he clearly shows here that he has found a lucid place in his vocal performance that
is plastic enough to be used without limitations. Peter’s sister, Heather Woods
Broderick, also participates on the record; she played flute, sang, and helped arrange
cello parts for the record, which are grand though their character is often so unobtrusive
that music breathes simple in their nature.
Not afraid of its ambiances, sparse or epic moments John Askew (Tracker) classily mixed
the album in his Scenic Burrows studio, in Portland OR. The record has been mastered
on magnetic tape by pianist/sound maestro Nils Frahm in Berlin, Germany.