The tender soprano voice of Cecilia Pastorino gently floats over placid instrumental soundscapes and shepherds listeners through the rich poetry and sonic topography of Decir, the debut album from Argentine composer Francisco del Pino.
Decir features the eponymous seven-movement song cycle scored for voice (Pastorino), electric guitar (del Pino), viola (Pablo Jivo), and percussion (Daniela Cervetto), with lyrics by Argentine poet Victoria Cóccaro. The song titles—”La puerta” (“the door”), “El campo” (“the country”), “El viento” (“the wind”), “El agua” (“the water”), “La piedra” (“the stone”), “Las voces” (“the voices”), and “Territorio” (“territory”)—anchor us in the natural world as the poetry explores migration and displacement.
Here’s what Francisco had to say about Decir:
A deliberately expressive and emotionally charged work, Decir seeks to synthesize the immediacy of contemporary popular songwriting and the architecture of early counterpoint. The song cycle was written for and performed by a group of Argentinian musicians—Cecilia Pastorino, Daniela Cervetto, Pablo Jivotovschii, and me on guitar. We are all active in both the classical and vernacular music scenes.
Decir is out May 14, 2021 on New Amsterdam Records, and you can pre-order the album here.
About Francisco del Pino
Francisco del Pino is an Argentinian composer and guitarist. His music, which draws influence from both classical and vernacular traditions, revolves around process and pattern and is usually based on extensive contrapuntal techniques. del Pino’s works have been presented in a variety of music series and festivals across the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
As a performer, del Pino has a rich background in playing with diverse bands and ensembles, ranging from contemporary classical music to prog-oriented rock to South American folk. Current performance projects include alba par, a voice and guitar duo navigating the crossroads between the medieval and renaissance chanson and the contemporary popular song. He also performs his own work on electric guitar.
After graduating from the Universidad Nacional de las Artes in Argentina as a student of Fernando Maglia, del Pino continued his training under the guidance of Gerardo Gandini, whose workshops he attended between 2009 and 2011. Within the framework of several international courses, he also took lessons and attended masterclasses with composers Mariano Etkin, Toivo Tulev, Wim Henderickx, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Kaija Saariaho, and Stefano Gervasoni, among others. Francisco del Pino is currently a Mark Nelson Fellow in composition at Princeton University.
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