Coba in 'electrocumbé'
Coba's "De norte a sur" was featured on a compilation CD - entitled "electrocumbé" - curated by Iván Benavides and Cedric David for Colombian magazine "Shock" featuring some the most interesting projects dealing with Colombian music right now. Other featured projects include Bloque, Sidestepper, Mojarra eléctrica and Choc-quib-town.
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"Coba blends Colombian...root musics into an energetic jazz-rock stew."
The Village Voice
"Colombian chanteuse Luc¡a Pulido reimagines the rich musical traditions of her native land, accompanied by her accomplished band, which includes guitar virtuoso and celebrated composer Sebastian Cruz." The New York Post
"Sebastián Cruz achieves a sonic synthesis that is both personal and innovative, modern but also indebted to different traditions...as if a plastic artist painted sounds in the air, Sebastián Cruz' music fills us with Images."
Iván Benavides
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Texto completo de Iván Benavides sobre coba
[for english]
"Miro al mundo como un extranjero
tu mirada es el idioma que entiendo..." Sebastián Cruz
Bogotá parece el inmenso suburbio de una ciudad que no existe. Nueva York es solo un capítulo más del género de ficción. Hector Lavoe hablaba de la esquizofrenia cultural del latino en N.Y. Los músicos sufrirían entonces de "esquizofonia", múltiples personalides sónicas. Los sonidos se han vuelto nómadas, los músicos ya no habitan la "localidad", sino los cruces de caminos, una manera de estar en el mundo sonoro que es varias a la vez, y donde por definición los sonidos que se escuchan son impuros. Se rompen las fronteras entre géneros musicales y se crean experiencias sonoras que remiten más a la experiencia individual y colectiva que a la pertenencia a una categoria musical o a un lugar. Lejos de las fáciles corrientes de moda, de la "fusión" mecánica, o del experimentalismo y la especulación, Sebastián Cruz logra una síntesis sonora, innovadora y personal, moderna pero al mismo tiempo deudora de diferentes tradiciones. Creación de atmósferas que pueden ser exhuberantes, pero al mismo tiempo expresadas con una emoción contenida, intimista. Como si un artista plástico pintara sonidos en el aire, la música de Sebastián Cruz nos puebla de imágenes.
Iván Benavides
Iván Benavides' text about coba
[para español]
"I look at the world as a stranger
Your glance is the language I understand..." Sebastián Cruz
Bogota seems the immense suburb of a non-existent city. New York is just one more chapter in the fiction genre. Hector Lavoe speaks of the cultural
schizophrenia
suffered by the latino in N.Y. Musicians would, then, suffer from "squizophonia," multiple sonic personalities. Sounds have become nomads. Musicians no longer inhabit the "locality," but the crossroads. A way of being in the world that is more than one, and where sounds heard are impure by definition. Frontiers between musical genres are broken and the acoustic experiences created remit more to the individual and collective experience, rather than belonging in a particular place or musical style. Far from easy trends, mechanic "fusion," and experimentation or speculation, Sebastián Cruz achieves a sonic synthesis that is both personal and innovative, modern but also indebted to different traditions. He creates atmospheres that may be exuberant, but expressed, at the same time, with contained, intimate emotion. As if a plastic artist painted sounds in the air, Sebastián Cruz' music fills us with Images.
Iván Benavides