2026

A new album on 12k is coming very soon.

A beautiful review & story by Fiftyfootshadows

Ambient music has continued to be a stabilizing force within my day to day life. It breathes calm into moments of chaos and helps moments of joy feel transcendent. Among my favorite discoveries lately is the album La Niña Junco by Federico Durand released on the 12k Label.

The album has a purity to its concept that I greatly admire and appreciate. The whole of the release was created using one single synthesizer, and to great effect. It causes each song to pool into a collective whole as if each new exploration of the instrument is a single block building a home, a cozy, light filled home from open windows and warm summer breeze. While that may sound over the top, its my best attempt at describing how its left me feeling at times.

Hidden among the album is a song which has quickly become a quintessential piece of ambient music within my all time favorites called Navidad en el bosque. When I first heard it I must have left it on repeat for an hour, and continue to come back to it time and time again. It is both somber and hopeful, contemplative and full of subtle life with its waves of light hearted sound. Its the kind of music that makes the world around me feel empty without it playing within it.

While most 12k releases come out in physical form via CD, this one has a well suited vinyl edition that sounds beautiful. If you are curious about the toy bird in the photo above. It came in a pack of Japanese caramels and has lived around my turntable for a long while. When I started to share the process of playing vinyl records with my one year old daughter I placed the toy on the label so she could see that the disc was spinning around and around. Now, at 16 months old she loves to make attempts at helping me play records and because I included the bird as part of that initial learning experience, now she won’t let me play a record without the little wooden bird spinning round and round there on the record along with the music because, of course, thats just part of what makes it work. She sure loves music, which really brings me joy.

At any rate, if you are into ambient, contemplative music then be sure to have a listen to this fantastic release on 12k (which just happens to currently have a summer sale going on through the end of the month so its a perfect time to pick up a copy if you end up enjoying it as much as I have.)

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Muchas gracias Fiftyfootshadows & John Carey! F.

Hitomi Koma's beautiful cat & "La niña junco"

You can enter to Hitomi Koma's beautiful world HERE.

Thank you very much! F.

A wonderful review by Data.Wave

All the tracks from the new album La Niña Junco (released on the label 12k) by Federico Durand are real lullabies reminding us of the beautiful and tranquil time of our childhood. You won't find any radically innovative musical moves here; instead you'll see how using just sincere ingenuity and sound a musician can create a musical piece with ease and simplicity. 

The first track La historia de la niña junco is a tender beginning to Federico's story. Just a few minutes in 

we can already feel the forest and the sound of the wind, listening to his track with a title that speaks for itself:Navidad en el Bosque. I'm also impressed by the harmony of the background noises and the lead melodies of the tracks. Far-away rustles, micro-sounds and keys of the track Rondel also perfectly fit the overall theme of the album. The mood of this work is pensive and melancholic. 

In my opinion, the main «talking» piece of La Niña Junco is the track called Una plaza junto a las vias del tren; its light and marvellous melody sticks in your memory. It should be noted that the original cover for this release was created by Lola Goldstein, a famous artist from Argentina, the home country of the musican himself. 

As listen to it again and again, I like to imagine how multiple generations of young people grow up listening to the sounds of Federico Durand's music; and let us not forget about the adults, they can be dreamers as well!

Buy

Federico Durand 

12k

Author: Uniq

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Muchas gracias Uniq y Data Wave por la escucha y las palabras buenas, F.

Silence And Sound 

Federico Durand

La Niña Junco

(12K)

C’est à un voyage baigné de douceur et de poésie, que nous convie une nouvelle fois, l’argentin Federico Durand, à l’mage de son superbe A Través Del Espejo sorti l’année dernière.

Avec La Niña Junco, il compose une musique ambient aux nappes frappant l’imagination avec subtilité, assemblant bruitages organiques et sonorités abstraites aux images floutées, pour une perte des sens noyée dans un voile soyeux caressé par une lumière chaleureuse à l’éblouissement tamisé.

Federico Durand joue avec les balancements et les fluctuations, atteignant parfois une certaine forme de mysticisme aux yeux clos et l’esprit vagabond. Il nous caresse de par ses mélodies nuageuses, à la légèreté transparente que l’on aimerait tenir entre nos mains avant de les laisser à nouveau flotter. Un album délicat et évanescent à écouter sous une pluie d’étoiles filantes. Enivrant.

Roland Torres

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Muchas gracias Roland Torres & Silence And Sound por la bella reseña! F.

My new LP reviewed from Italy!

FEDERICO DURAND - La niña junco (12k)

Poche immagini possono adattarsi meglio di quella del germoglio di una pianta esile ma resistente come il giunco alla musica di Federico Durand, tanto delicata quanto dotata di ben definiti tratti di un naturalismo sonoro che trova la propria metafora nella manifestazione improvvisa di un’ispirazione.

Nel caso del suo ultimo lavoro solista intitolato appunto “La Niña Junco”, il motore della creatività è stato il ritrovamento da parte dell’artista argentino di un vecchio synth, il primo sul quale aveva cominciato a condurre le proprie esplorazioni sulle componenti organiche di minute particelle sonore. Proiettato indietro nel tempo, nel suo rifugio a contatto con la natura, tra le valli dell’Argentina centrale, Durand ha creato in presa diretta, nel volgere di appena un paio di giorni, i nove concisi brani che formano “La Niña Junco” e ne recano l’inconfondibile tocco delicato.

Soltanto a tratti caratterizzate da pulsazioni giocose, evidentemente determinate proprio dalla strumentazione ritrovata, le composizioni di Durand pennellano un microcosmo di equilibri fragili ma perfetti tra impulsi giustapposti in brevi loop che generano risonanze i cui vuoti sono riempiti da un pulviscolo tanto impalpabile quando decisivo nel trasmettere sensazioni di immediata spontaneità creativa. Pur non essendo direttamente connesso a un’idea di fondo proveniente dall’ambiente naturale, come invece molte opere di Durand, “La Niña Junco” si inserisce a pieno titolo nel suo ecosistema sonoro, colto nell’occasione nell’unicità della sua relazione tra individuo, tempo e ambiente.

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Muchas gracias Raffaello Russo y Music Won't Save You for your heartfelt listening! F.

"La niña junco" reviewed by Ondarock (Italia)

Si tratti di affinità elettive o di proselitismo, nessun'altra etichetta sarebbe stata adatta a ospitare la musica di Federico Durand quanto la 12k di Taylor Deupree, di ritorno nel 2017 con le delicate sequenze indeterminate di "Somi". Attivo dall'inizio del decennio, poco più di un anno fa l'autore argentino trovava infatti la casa ideale per "A Través Del Espejo", ultimo di una già nutrita serie di album ambient dallo stile intimo e inconfondibile.
Con "La Niña Junco" Durand ha voluto portare a compimento un esercizio di essenzialità, riducendo ai minimi termini gli strumenti a sua disposizione: con un unico sintetizzatore Crumar Performer, due pedali loop e uno per il delay è infatti riuscito a plasmare nove tracce infuse di una grazia surreale, in bilico tra bozzettismo figurativo e onirica astrazione.

Seppure su tutte sia più calzante l'analogia coi morbidi tappeti del bedroom pop firmato Trouble Books ("La historia de la niña junco", "Lluvia de estrellas"), non risulta pretestuosa l'ulteriore associazione con le recenti prove del maestro Eno: se il suo "Lux" era un quadro oggettivante e cristallino su una natura immota, le miniature di Durand si appigliano a suggestioni che spaziano dall'istantanea fotografica ("Una plaza junto a las vías del tren") alla sinestesia tattile (i due movimenti di una ipotetica "melodia di peluche").
È lo stesso tratto gentile delle forme fantastiche di Joan Miró, ma anche delle favole partorite nel "regno dei sogni e della follia" chiamato Studio Ghibli, giunto di recente all'essenza della sua arte collettiva proprio con "La storia della principessa splendente".

Quando non c'è null'altro da dire, rimane soltanto l'ascolto e le immaginazioni da esso innescate: una pratica alla quale l'intero catalogo 12k ci ha sempre educato - con prodotti "di genere" ma che non possono mai semplicemente scivolare in sottofondo - e che un gioiello come "La Niña Junco" merita in particolar modo.

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Muchas gracias Ondarock y Michele Palozzo por la reseña! F.

A wonderful review from UK!

Federico Durand - La niña junco (12k)

6 years ago I would have found myself revising in the garden for some of my last school exams at this very table, perhaps beneath this same umbrella. 2 years before that, and I was revising for my GCSEs when I was 16. The scenery’s different now; the family home moved and now I sit by the canalside, the furniture is certainly a little worse for wear, but there’s a certain sweet nostalgia to being here. I sit here like an echo, a fair-weather ghost returning to familiar spots to work and write.

Bittersweetness is a running theme with Durand, a consistent trend in his minimal, organic constructions; in equal measure the reductive nature of his music creates environments both lovingly reverberant and simple, as well as crooning and wistful, yearning for places and people since passed. Take “Navidad en el bosque”, Christmas in the Forest: a brilliant reflection of time and space, soft static fuzz gently dampening the slow synth movements as the trees and snow close in, the world muted in its blanket of snow and foliage. The faded, distal glimmerings of “Una plaza a las vias del tren” (The Square Beside The Train Tracks) are similarly wanting, trickling out in crooning and tired cyclings, nothing more than a dream of place.

There’s a pastoral, even perhaps parochial vibe to certain moments here; “Melodia de felpa” and its later continuation shine in thinned strands of electronica, slow and simple abstractions suspended in rarified drones that brush the senses like blossoms in the air, or adrift dandelion seeds. Later, “El cascabel de plata” unrolls in soothing passages of tumbling synth lines, like distant and unseen church bells that ring and echo about the landscape, a barely detectable breeze wafting each note towards us.

Everything is dreamlike, each piece sounding as though it’s being slowly washed up on the shores of our mind, every tide a slice of time returned, every sloshing wave a moment of memory. More than happy to let it continue, closer Rain of Stars, “Iluvia de estrellas”, hardly touches the senses as it allows precious few floaty, twinkling chords to penetrate the cool void. The select flurries that do make it out of the darkness are faded, ancient in sound and sight; their place in the heavens is secure and enduring, without concern for ephemerality or transience. How many humans have lost themselves beneath them, dreaming themselves back through time under their fixed, continual gaze? Sometimes I ask the same question of Durand’s music.

Chris Doherty for HearFeel.

¡Muchas gracias por la escucha sensible! F.

NEW LP! "La niña junco" (12k)

Federico Durand - La niña Junco

label : 12k (USA)

artwork : Lola Goldstein 

design : Taylor Deupree

master : Taylor Deupree

release date : 14 April 2017

format : Vinyl LP

Argentinian musician Federico Durand returns with his 2nd full length album on 12k following 2016’s A Través Del Espejo (12k1085). Taking his already minimalist composition style Federico challenged himself by using only one synthesizer for this beautiful album of sparse, hypnotic dustiness. His talent for creating works of so much emotion out of so little attest to his concentration when working and his passion for the craft. La Niña Junco is a handwoven gem. Music with a humble origin and a deep resonating soul. Famed Argentinian artist Lola Goldstein graciously illustrated the album cover, caputuring the idea of memory and object that is so infused with Federico’s work. 

"Immersed in the beauty of the very moment, the songs for La Niña Junco were recorded in one take during two days, in a rush of inspiration. I used a small sound palette: one instrument, a Crumar Performer synthesizer along with two looping pedals and Roland Space Echo RE-201. The Crumar was my first synthesizer. I bought it many years ago and then gave it to a friend, who later lent it to my brother. After a very long time, I got it back when we moved to La Cumbre, a small town in the central mountain area of Argentina. As this instrument has a very limited but beautiful oscilator, it was rewarding to make small melodies using only its almost magical sound. I was enchanted to have the chance to play with my Crumar again: in many ways this album feels like returning to an early home. The electric noises of my old, broken keyboard, were an unexpected and musical gift and a humble proof of the passing of time." 

- Federico Durand, La Cumbre, 2017

You can purchase the vinyl and digital thorugh 12k Bandcamp:

"A través del espejo" was selected by Music Is Good as a favorite of 2016

#1. Federico Durand – A Través Del Espejo
This delightful album was released on 12k early in the year, and I kept listening to it all year. (My wife liked it too, which is far from guaranteed with the more experimental fringes of my listening.) A childlike celebration of tiny, fragile sounds, and a reminder of what can be destroyed by noise and bombast, this album offers a series of delicate meditations on the vulnerable beauty of sound. Durand’s Jardín de invierno(on Spekk) deserves honorable mention in the same vein, but it was this earlier release that captivated my ears the most this year.

Muchas gracias Music Is Good! F.

"Jardín de invierno" mentioned in Taylor Deupree's favorite albums list (12k)

Super honored and happy to be in wonderful Taylor Deupree's list along with also wonderful musicians!

Thank you very much Taylor Deupree for your heartfelt listeninig!

Link to list and web HERE.

A wonderful article by Rockdelux!

Federico Durand – Rockdelux (2016)

November 15, 2016

ROCKDELUX MAGAZINESPAIN, NOVEMBER 2016

(english translation below)

LA SENDA MÁGICA
Como un artesano, Federico Durand ha ido perfeccionando el tallado de sus melodías como si fueran cuentas de cristal. Fabricado a partir del arrullo de viejas cintas de casete, teclados y cajitas de música, su sonido revela un mundo de una belleza inocente y apaciguada que parece discurrir como en un cuento.

Las manzanas del barrio de Recoleta se atrincheran contra la escasez que asola Buenos Aires y el resto de Argentina. Sus fachadas monumentales son vestigios del esplendor comercial de las primeras décadas del siglo XX. Es julio de 2014 y Federico Durand me guía entre esas calles señoriales que desaguan en una inmensa plaza palaciega, a escala americana. Le resulta difícil contener el entusiasmo: hace poco que ha vuelto de Japón, donde ha compartido kilómetros, té y horas de música junto con Stephan Mathieu, Tomoyoshi Date, Chihei Hatakeyama, Corey Fuller y Taylor Deupree, quien parece decidido a editar un disco en el que Durand lleva meses enfrascado. En los dos años que han transcurrido desde aquella tarde, Federico ha visto nacer a su primera hija, ha dejado su trabajo como profesor de Literatura en un colegio y ha abandonado Buenos Aires para instalarse con su familia en una casita en las montañas de la provincia de Córdoba. En ese tiempo también han visto la luz “Jardín de invierno” (Spekk, 2016) y “A través del espejo” (12k, 2016), aquel álbum del que hablaba entonces, que curiosamente comparte título con uno de los temas de “La estrella dormida” (White Paddy Mountain, 2014). ‘Algo de lo que se mostraba y ocultaba en ‘La estrella dormida’ florece en ‘A través del espejo’. Por un lado, el entresueño de la primera estrella de la tarde; por otro, el mundo de los espejos. El cielo estrellado es también un espejo donde nos podemos mirar”, asegura Federico. “El corte que lleva el nombre del disco es muy antiguo. Lo encontré en una casete grabada con mi portaestudio de cuatro canales cuando estaba organizando la mudanza a nuestra nueva casa en las sierras. Lo único que hice fue transcribirlo tal cual a la computadora. No recuerdo cuándo lo grabé, pero el día que lo descubrí y apreté ‘play’ supe que su sonido casi mágico era un mensaje que yo mismo me había enviado hace años, sin darme cuenta. Fue el hilo del que fui tirando hasta hacer que apareciera toda la trama. Los discos se van revelando de este modo, muy lentamente. Todo va apareciendo. Tengo esa fe”.

Federico ha ido definiendo un mundo de porcelana a través de su música. Sus discos son espacios de una belleza tan ilusoria como inocente, que parte de un momento de epifanía que da un sentido, una narrativa, a su poesía sonora. Tanto “El estanque esmeralda” (Spekk, 2014) como “El idioma de las luciérnagas” (Desire Path, 2013), “El libro de los árboles mágicos” (Home Normal, 2012) o “El éxtasis de las flores pequeñas” (Own, 2011) surgieron a partir de recuerdos y visiones, dotando a la naturaleza de un misterio intangible. Todos remiten a la misma búsqueda de un instante de luz, de pureza. Son piezas del mismo mosaico, variaciones sobre una melodía ancestral, multiplicadas en los reflejos infinitos de un abalorio. Federico lo cree así: “Para mí la música es un espacio sagrado. Es el jardín donde me pierdo y a la vez me encuentro. Aprendí que para hacer música hay que saber escuchar. Y que, como quería Keats, debo ser fiel a mi imaginación; que la poesía, la creación, debe brotar tan naturalmente como el árbol da hojas”.

“A través del espejo” profundiza en un ejercicio de depuración en el que Federico, que ha dejado de recurrir a las grabaciones de campo, lleva sumido algún tiempo. “Cada día creo más en el esplendor de lo pequeño, de lo esencial”, proclama. Su poder evocador contagia incluso las imágenes que suscitan títulos de piezas como “Linternas junto a la laguna” o “El grillo de nácar”, ayudando a colorear la historia. “Siempre sentí fascinación por los espejos porque reflejan y a la vez velan lo que muestran”, reconoce. “El título del disco también puede remitir a Lewis Carroll y su Alicia, pero lo cierto es que durante el tiempo en que lo grababa estaba obsesionado con la experiencia de enfrentar dos espejos: como en un ‘loop, la imagen se repite hacia el infinito, volviéndose cada vez más verde y difusa. Quería experimentar ese universo de los espejos a través del sonido”.

“Jardín de invierno” debe su título al espacio favorito de Federico en su casa en las sierras. Allí es donde prefiere trabajar en su música. Es su disco más delicado y un paso más en el esencialismo al que parece estar abocada su música, como una semilla de diente de león disolviéndose en el aire de la mañana.

Aquel viaje a Japón de hace dos años también propició “Magical Imaginary Child” (White Paddy Mountain, 2015), un disco compartido con Chihei Hatakeyama con el que Federico amplió un círculo de colaboraciones que incluye proyectos junto a Tomoyoshi Date (Melodía) o Nicholas Szczepanik (Every Hidden Color). “Me hospedaba en casa de Chihei y una tarde hicimos una serie de grabaciones. Entre cada sesión bebíamos café en el jardín de su casa, que tiene piedras cubiertas de musgo y el kami de una rana. Su barrio es un lugar silencioso a las afueras de Tokio”, recuerda Federico, antes de relatar cómo rescató algunas tomas dedicadas a su abuelo materno, recogidas en “Música para Manuel” (Hibernate, 2015): “Mi abuelo Manuel fue mi mejor amigo. Era de Almería y me contaba historias de España, de su trabajo como mecánico de aviones de hélice para Aerolíneas Argentinas. Me llevó por primera vez a los bosques del sur de Argentina y me enseñó una forma de ver que, gracias a Dios, todavía perdura y me guía en cada cosa que hago. Tenía una imaginación y una sensibilidad únicas, también un gran sentido del humor. Perdió a sus padres siendo muy pequeño, pero nunca hablaba de ello”.

(GOOGLE TRANSLATE TO ENGLISH)
apologies for the oddness that often happens.

THE MAGICAL PATH
As a craftsman, Federico Durand has been refined carving of his melodies as if they were glass beads. Manufactured from cooing of old cassette tapes, keyboards and music boxes, sound reveals a world of innocent beauty and appeased that seems to run like a story.

The barrio de Recoleta neighborhood barricade themselves against shortages plaguing Buenos Aires and the rest of Argentina. Its monumental facades are remnants of commercial splendor of the early twentieth century. It is July 2014 and Federico Durand guides me among those stately streets that empty into a huge palatial square, American scale. He finds it hard to contain his excitement: only recently has returned from Japan, where he has shared kilometers, tea and hours of music with Stephan Mathieu, Tomoyoshi Date, Chihei Hatakeyama, Corey Fuller and Taylor Deupree, who seems determined to release an album in which it leads Durand engaged for months. In the two years that have passed since that afternoon, Federico’s wife has given birth to her first child, and he has left his job as a professor of literature at a school and has left Buenos Aires to settle with his family in a small house in the mountains of the province of Cordoba. In that time releases of his have also seen the light: “Winter Garden” (Spekk, 2016) and “A Través del Espejo” (12k, 2016), that album was talking about then, curiously shares title with one of the themes of “The star asleep “(White Paddy Mountain, 2014). ‘Some of what was shown and hiding in’ The Sleeping Star ‘blooms in’ Through the Looking Glass’. On the one hand, the doze of the first evening star; on the other, the world of mirrors. The starry sky is a mirror in which we can look, “says Federico. “The court named the album is very old. I found it on a cassette with my portastudio four track when I was organizing the move to our new home in the mountains. All I did was transcribe such to the computer. I do not remember when I recorded it, but the day I discovered it and I pressed ‘play’ I knew his almost magical sound was a message that I had sent me years ago, without realizing it. It was the thread I was pulling up to make it appear the whole plot. The discs are revealed thus very slowly. Everything is appearing. I have that faith.”

Federico has been defining a world of porcelain through his music. His records are spaces of beauty as illusory as innocent, that part of a moment of epiphany that gives a sense, a narrative, his sound poetry. Both “The Emerald Pond” (Spekk, 2014) as “The language of the Fireflies” (Desire Path, 2013), “The Book of magic trees” (Home Normal, 2012) or “Ecstasy of small flowers” ( Own, 2011) arose from memories and visions, giving the nature of an intangible mystery. All refer to the same search for a moment of light and purity. They are pieces of the same mosaic, variations on an ancient melody, multiplied in the infinite reflections of a trinket. Federico thinks: “For me, music is a sacred space. It is the garden where I lose myself and find myself again. I learned that to make music must listen. And, as I wanted Keats, I must be true to my imagination; poetry, creation, must come as naturally as the tree gives leaves “.

“A Través del Espejo” delves into a clean-up exercise in which Federico, who has stopped resorting to field recordings, takes some time. “Every day I think more in the splendor of small, in essence,” he proclaims. Its evocative power spread even images aroused titles of pieces as “lanterns along the lagoon” or “Cricket nacre”, helping to color the story. “I always felt fascination with mirrors that reflect and also watch what they show,” he admits. “The album title can also refer to Lewis Carroll and Alice, but the truth is that during the time when the recording was obsessed with the experience of facing two mirrors: as in a ‘loop, the image is repeated to infinity , becoming greener and diffuse. I wanted to experience mirrors that universe through sound. ”

“Winter Garden” owes its title to favorite Federico space at home in the mountains. That’s where he prefers to work on his music. It is his most delicate disk and a step in the essentialism that seems doomed his music, like a dandelion seed dissolving into the morning air.

That trip to Japan two years ago also led “Magical Imaginary Child” (White Paddy Mountain, 2015), a shared Chihei Hatakeyama record that Federico expanded a circle of collaborations that includes projects with Tomoyoshi Date (Melody) or Nicholas Szczepanik (Every Hidden Color). “I Chihei staying at home and later made a series of recordings. Between each session we drank coffee in the garden of his house, which has mossy stones and the kami of a frog. Your neighborhood is quiet on the outskirts of Tokyo place, “recalls Frederick, before recounting how he rescued some dedicated to his maternal grandfather takes, collected in” Music for Manuel “(Hibernate, 2015):” My grandfather Manuel was my best friend . It was Almeria and tell me stories about Spain, his work as an aircraft propeller mechanic for Aerolineas Argentinas. It took me first to the forests of southern Argentina and showed me a way to see that, thank God, still lingers and guide me in everything I do. He had a unique imagination and sensitivity, also a great sense of humor. He lost his parents when he was very young, but never talked about it. ”

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Muchas gracias Juan Monge y Rockdelux por la escucha atenta y las palabras sensibles! F.

"A través del espejo" reviewed by Obskure Mag (France)

"A través del espejo" (12k) ~ Obskure #28

Text by Oliver Bernard

 A través del Espejo est le premier album de l’Argentin à paraître chez 12k.

Durand est un compositeur d’ambient délicat, ce disque le prouve une nouvelle fois. Les dix titres qui le constituent possèdent un charme candide irrésistible. Armé d’instruments et d’outils divers, l’artiste propose une musique élégante, parfois expérimentale, portée notamment par des manipulations de bandes. Ainsi, on ne peut s’empêcher de penser à la série The Disintegration Loops de William Basinski sur « Linternas junto a la Laguna (Lanterns beside the Lake) », « Cancion de la Via Lactea (Miky Way Song) » et « Recuerdos en Super 8 (Memories on Super 8) ». Le musicien concocte des mélodies simples, lumineuses, utilisant avec beaucoup de talent le procédé de la boucle. Cet aspect répétitif est particulièrement prégnant sur « Mirador en la Montana (Viewpoint in the Mountain) », « Linternas junto a la Laguna (Lanterns beside the Lake) » et « Cancion de la Via Lactea (Miky Way Song) ». La douceur générale est renforcée par la présence de boîtes à musique, d’une lyre Auris ou encore d’un carillon Koshi ; de même, on perçoit de temps à autre quelques drones limpides, ajoutant encore plus de quiétude à l’ensemble (« Cancion de la Via Lactea (Miky Way Song) », « A través del Espejo (Through the Mirror) »).
Notons qu’Andrew Chalk joue du synthétiseur sur « Mirador en la Montana (Viewpoint in the Mountain) » et que Durand se sert de l’enregistrement d’une femme préparant le coucher de ses enfants (« Hora de dormir (Time to sleep) »), un moment tendre à l’image de ce magnifique opus.

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Merci beaucoup Obskure & Oliver Bernard! F.

"A través del espejo" (12k) reviewed by Neural, Italia

Amigos, buen día! Comparto esta reseña -en inglés- de mi disco "A través del espejo" (12k) que salió en la revista italiana Neural. 

"Federico Durand is an Argentinian composer who is well known for a series of refined and delicate releases on labels such as Spekk, Own, and Desire Path. The seminal idea of A Través Del Espejo dates to 2014 when Durand participated in a Japanese tour with other 12K artists, sharing music and ideas throughout the tour and developing an intimate approach to sounds. Once the artist had developed broken melodies using cassette recorders as an instrument, with loop-machines (such as the Roland Space Echo or Electro Harmonix 2880) he began to meticulously accumulate sequences and treatments. The soundscapes, like singular images iterated through two mirrors placed face-to-face – acquire a particularly dreamy and meditative appeal and turn in a loop that flows into infinity. Field recordings peek between the grooves too: a woman speaks with a child, natural sounds, auditory catches of daily life in a village, abstract narratives that leave us slipping into a parallel world. Durand is very attentive to detail, both to spontaneous audio emergences, and to the natural sounds made by machines, crackles and other sounds that appear here as an unexpected gift. The lullabies are very hypnotic, and these resonate with alchemical vibrations, patiently calibrated by the author, who skillfully organizes every minimal element, every harmony, every millimetric overlapping of tonal events. The result combines the quietest moments and inspired harmonies, nostalgic atmospheres and poetic rêveries: memories that floats in the ether, engraved in an accomplished minimalista."

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Muchas gracias Neural!

F.

Interview by Loop (Chile)

"Creo que al escuchar música entredormidos (en nuestra cama, en un transporte publico, durante una siesta) podemos recuperar nuestra capacidad de asombro infantil e incluso volver a vivir experiencias del pasado. La repetición, las bellas melodías en loop, nos guían durante el adormecimiento hacia una zona obscura y también llena de luz."

"I think that listening to music half-asleep (in our bed, on public transport, during a nap) can regain our childlike sence of wonder and even re-live past experiences. Repetition, beautiful melodies in a loop, guide us during the numbness towards a dark and light-filled zone.”

Pequeña entrevista para Loop (Chile) ~ Español & English.

You can read the complete interview HERE.

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Muchas gracias Loop y Guillermo escudero por la gentileza e interés! F. 

"A través del espejo" ~ Reviewed in Poland

Federico Durand – A Través del espejo

Mamy nową postać w katalogu oficyny 12k, a jest nią argentyński artista Federico Durand.

Durand nie jest debiutantem, gdyż do tej pory wydał już kilka płyt dla takich labeli jak Spekk, Own czy Desire Path. Tytuł tegorocznego krążka „A Través del espejo” w języku hiszpańskim oznacza „przez lustro”. Jak twierdzi sam artysta, lubi eksperymentować z lustrami, ustawiając je często naprzeciwko siebie, co też sprawia, iż rodzą się wtedy nowe oraz bardzo ciekawe obrazy. Powstały w ten sposób swoisty miraż, gdzieś w przestrzeni domowego zacisza, dobrze oddaje charakter muzyki Argentyńczykamieniącej się wieloma kolorami.

Dziesięć kompozycji z „A Través del espejo” to podróż w świat onirycznych drobinek dźwiękowych. Nienachalnie pojawiający się szum z taśm magnetofonowych (The Roland Space Echo), jedynie wzmaga to delikatne uczucie, a także stanowi punkt wyjścia do tworzenia kolejnych warstw. Argentyńczyk bazując na analogowym szumie i zarejestrowanych ruchach powietrza kreuje swój własny kalejdoskop brzmień, w którym słyszymy dźwięki liry, przetworzonego fortepianu, dzwonków, różnych zabawek i elektronicznych efektów.

„A Través del espejo” jest jak ambientowa pozytywka. Wiem, że będę ją wielokrotnie nakręcał, bo lubię, gdy wokół mnie krąży dobra energia, której akurat mamy pod dostatkiem w znakomitych nagraniach Federico Duranda.

08.01.2016 | 12k

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Thank you very much Polyphonia! F.

"A través del espejo" ~ Reviewed in Russia

Federico Durand
A Través Del Espejo
12k, 2016

Название альбома означает "Зазеркалье" в переводе с испанского и выбрано для альбома не только красоты ради. Аргентинский музыкант Федерико Дюран так вдохновился эффектом поставленных друг напротив друга зеркал, что посвятил немало времени размышляя над ним и попытался отразить свои выводы в музыке. По его мнению, в создании эмбиента из непрерывно повторяющихся, но плавно меняющихся петель звука есть что-то очень похожее на бесконечный коридор отражений, создаваемый зеркалами. Каждая петля потенциально содержит в себе всю композицию, какой-то намек на мелодию, которая развернется в полную силу лишь в процессе работы с её повторением. Конечно, сама эта идея восходит еще к минимализму 60-х и пленочным экспериментам первых электронных композиторов, но в случае Федерико все звучит намного приятнее для слуха неподготовленного слушателя. Такой эмбиент наверняка придется по духу даже тем, кто ни разу о таком направлении музыки и не слышал.

Дело даже не сколько в простоте форм, сколько в их изяществе, легкой текучести, которая не создает напряжения. Композитор запечатлевает воспоминания из детства, счастливые моменты, проведенные с семьей, какие-то яркие впечатления, до сих пор сохраняющие вдохновение изначального момента их появления. В этом тоже есть что-то "зеркальное" — отражаясь от поверхности вод нашей памяти, яркая эмоция из прошлого оживает новыми бликами, создавая вдохновение для чего-то нового. Что, в свою очередь, дает свежие оттенки эмоций, снова запечатлевающиеся в памяти, и снова отражающиеся в момент воспоминания... Эта петля продолжается бесконечно, и в какой-то мере все, что мы представляем как самих себя, быть может, и есть этот нескончаемый зеркальный коридор взаимоотраженных эмоций, воспоминаний, впечатлений... Где найти в этом начало? И есть ли у этого конец? Ведь разве не живут воспоминания и после смерти, разве не остаются эмоции такими же сильными, когда человек, вызвавший их, уже ушел из нашего мира? Даже не вдаваясь в эзотерику или философию, становится ясно, что человеческая жизнь — не такая уж мимолетная и все наши жизни так или иначе взаимосвязаны, переплетены — в точности так же, как звуки на этом альбоме. Яркие вспышки жизни, текущие сквозь океан времени…

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Thank you very much And You Will Never Learn Who Is Pied Paper and Tim Six! F.