WOMAD

Señor Coconut

From Denmark, Germany, Venezuela

Biography supplied by management, March 2004:The Señor from Santiago de Chile is standing on the Pop Olympus which must be located somewhere on one of the highest mountains of the Andes, and smiles knowingly…Señor Coconut and his orchestra prove with their new, third album "Fiesta Songs" that the cradle of all popular music is definitely in South America. Like a heart keeping with its rhythm the musical world events alive, the combo is pumping itself through a repertoire of megahits having been produced at a time when artists had not been one hit wonders.The hot-blooded Latin compositions by Coconut's own of his debut "Gran Baile" (Rather Interesting, 1997, re-release multiColor, 2001) have been passionately flirting with digital crispyness. Then the second album "El Baile Alemán" ("The German Dance"; multiColor, 2000) served the greatest electronic Kraftwerk jewels as Latin slammers to a perplexed public. Now "Fiesta Songs" is proving that "electronic" music has finally ceased to exist.For this a personal statement by Señor Coconut:"What has been manifested on "El Baile Alemán" has progressed a lot on "Fiesta Songs": the possibilities of combining and manipulating immense audio data on the harddisk generates an illusion of "authenticity". But this arises from the erroneous belief that one can assign the attributes "genuine" or "fake", "acoustic" or "electronic" to music. The truth is that all data is always equivalently available – material having been recorded live by the combo as well as fragments of already existing, original recordings (formerly so-called "samples") and synthetical sounds.Stylistically the album is mainly influenced by musical genres of the 50es: Mambo, Cha Cha Cha and Merengue. Like already having been demonstrated on the predecessor EP "Electrolatino", these and western popular musical styles (e.g. Electro) are treated as equally valuable or superfluous, historical quotations. Covers of Anglo-american Pop music and Latin traditionals are interpreted in a way sounding as if they have been recorded by a 23-headed orchestra around 1968 (my year of birth), related to arrangement, sound and mix. In company of these modified evergreens compositions of my own are inserted in a way that they become evergreens themselves. The result is is a highly complex, organic "Advanced Sampling"-collage the synthetical corset of which is breaking out every now and then.Those who want to make a great leap forward first have to walk a few steps back. "Señor Coconut" is, without irony and cynicism, totally seriously anchored in the tradition of the great masters of eclecticism. Reaching back for musical history while simultaneously formulating a future-oriented message is a statement against music producers believing in the fetish of progress, who do not notice that they are merely a small wheel within the machinery of the music industry."No matter whether one takes "Smoke on the Water", "Riders on the Storm" or "Beat It" – the sound processing could be as follows: a newly recorded trumpet riff is merged with a baritone pattern by Tito Rodriguez and layered on a carpet of congas recorded live (right channel) and a bongo pattern by Tito Puente (left channel). Single notes of an instrument are manipulated at will and complemented or replaced by pieces of other material (synthetical or acoustic). The sense of hearing is directed to certain musical elements for the purpose of disguising sample artefacts.These dynamical versions actually sound as if one has never perceived the titles any other way. "Oxygene", allegedly by Jean-Michel Jarre, has always been an Exotica discovery from a long forgotten, romantic movie score from the 50es out of the South Pacific region. The transplantation of the relics of the collective musical memory from the tropical harddisk to the spaciously linked, global music temple is sharpening emotional consciousness.Señor Coconut is giving an extremely relaxing, yet hynotic experience. His sound is as brilliant as a fixed star in the sky of the Southern hemisphere. "Fiesta Songs" is a positive-minded expedition to the origins of musical passion, of "coolness" and "tightness".Sun Ra already said: "I'm not interested in the future, I am interested in eternity."