Reviews of La Manzana Mágica [12k2063]

A touching, cohesive work that stands as a compelling addition to the Buenos Aires-based musician’s discography.

It is an open, weightless composition—electroacoustics for small, fragile echo chambers—suspended between memory and dream.

Some records ask to be understood. Others simply ask to be inhabited. Federico Durand’s “La Manzana Mágica” belongs decisively to the latter category, unfolding less like a collection of compositions than like a carefully assembled cabinet of forgotten wonders.

Delicate pairings of synth tones and environmental captures delve into the past, as Durand distils the ambience of memory into a music of wistful reflection and faded beauty.

Durand’s sonic framework flows silently and unhurriedly; he weaves each note as if observing a plant, a tree, or a garden with rapt attention. These subtle images and synthesized notes unfold precisely at the threshold of twilight.

It’s a soulful piece of music. An album that manoeuvres between fragile movements and tonalities. An ambience that feels familiar and yet distant.

An exceptionally open, fragile album, reveal [ing] its magic less through density than through omission.