Drawing Music: Alejandro Cuervo

Alejandro Cuervo
27.10.2023
4 min. of reading time

My relationship with music is dual. Sometimes I'm connected to it all the time, other times - for short periods - I need the silence. As a consumer, I tend to get hooked on what I like and can "burn through" an album long enough to have to put it on pause later. What does remain constant is that discovering music I like is a trigger for creativity and good spirits; at the very least it fixes my day. I think that if the world hasn't exploded yet, it's thanks in part to that sonic alchemy.

In my playlists Omara Portuondo, Silvia Pérez Cruz, Silvana Estrada, Harold López-Nussa, Aldo López-Gavilán, Jorge Drexler, Fito-Spinetta-Charly, Bon Iver, Damien Rice, Snarky Puppy, Avishai Cohen, Rodrigo Amarante, Carlos Varela, Aca Seca, Baiuca, Roly Berrío, Leo García, Yaima Orozco cannot be missed. Then, from there, I choose depending on the mood. To a deserted island I could take Bon Iver's homonymous album, or Shaot Regishot by Avishai Cohen. Or one of those "assorted .mp3" CDs that were so famous in Cuba.

I feel that music is a space to inhabit, a space in constant metamorphosis and it is a great honor when they send you the demo and you are one of the few people who have heard it and, in addition, they want you to give it shape and color.

Illustrating for music is one of the commissions I enjoy the most and, sometimes, one of the most demanding: digesting and channeling a personal space, a way of seeing the world, and then trying to contribute something and give it a new expressive dimension, is no easy matter. And therein lies the enjoyment: not only in the challenge, but in being able to have that kind of intimacy with another person.

I have illustrated and designed for many musical projects: Carlo Fidel Taboada, Rey Pantoja, Descemer Bueno, Miguel Ángel de la Rosa, Roly Berrío, Haydeé Milanés, Yaima Orozco, Magazine AM:PMthe podcast To the ear and festivals such as Patria Grande or Longina. Several of these commissions came from working as producer of Noslen Porrúa and organizer of the Encuentro de Poetas y Cantores, a job I loved, where I met music of wonderful people and drew in my mind many of the songs, which were part of my life.

To find inspiration in my work for music, I often put in loop the song or the record I have to illustrate, so that by the tenth or twelfth listen they are already part of the environment, like white noise; then I can have all those frequencies with the same power in my mind. So it's easier to see and illustrate. It's almost a landscaping task.

Other times I go for a walk with the song in my headphones, because the connections between the walk and the music reveal a new form of the song, ideas and sensations come. Many times I try to illustrate more for a feeling than for an understanding, I will be very happy the day I succeed.