The new project composed and performed by maestro Gustavo Beytelmann & DJ producer Philippe Cohen Solal has just been released. They recorded visuals for each of the four songs, making it a video album.
Inspired by John Keats’ famous poem The Human Seasons, the songs throw current industry trends for two-minute songs out of the window – the shortest piece on The Human Seasons lasts a gorgeous eight minutes and the longest stretches past thirteen.
Here, the acoustics and electronics interact in a unique musical ping-pong. The two musicians cross over between the human seasons, between “field recording” and “spoken word”, to deliver a stunning improvised performance.
The music is variously joyful, tender and emotive, bridging time and space with samples that evoke half-remembered Latin tea dances or a sun-soaked bassline half-heard across a field, whilst Gustavo Beytelmann’s gossamer-spun piano lines nudge the different phases of life into the light.
This release happens in two decades of working life under the Gotan Project umbrella, with the mutual understanding that comes from countless nights on stage – including a ‘quite magical’ moment in 2003 when technology failed and improvisation triumphed.
