The Illusion / Tobías Alfonso and The Dairy Monkeys

Luckily in Cuba we do not forget so easily. Neither our roots nor what we have built along the way. And musically speaking, we are privileged. Luckily we have no qualms when it comes to fusing any genre, any nuance, to obtain increasingly richer, deeper and more ornate products. That is The Illusionby Tobías Alfonso y Los Monos Lácteos. An album loaded with colors, like its cover; full of ornaments that do not overload the work; on the contrary, they point to a trip through any Cuban street at two o'clock in the afternoon: a fresh, full and frenetic trip.

Tobías Alfonso is a Cuban musician with a broad background, offered by his family environment; he flows between Brazilian popular music, Argentine rock, Sabina and Serrat, 70's classics such as Queen, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, "and a lot of Stevie Wonder". One cannot ignore, of course, the Cuban trova base with which he grew up, being the son of singer-songwriter Gerardo Alfonso.

The production of your album The Illusion was a complicated but rewarding process. With the help of his family and friends, he managed to organize a concert at the theater of the National Museum of Fine Arts, where he presented the project to the public.. The decision to record it live, instead of setting it in a studio, was a result of the economic and technical limitations he faced, and it allowed him to capture the essence and energy of his songs live. And indeed, thanks to the live recording, the emotion of the moment in which the songs were performed is captured, which makes the experience of listening to the CD more authentic and closer. You can feel the connection between the artist and his audience; their interventions, their questions; the variations and improvised moments that are not found in studio versions, personalize the phonogram.

In little more than an hour you listen to the twelve songs that make up the album, which show, as Tobías tells me, the "early teens" he was when he wrote them. I don't say that because they are immature or simple, but because of that adolescent fascination for what surrounds him, for the world that is opening up to him at every step and the answers that one finds along the way. "These songs are the testimony of seven years of composing and more than ten studying music, in and out of academia. Let's say it's my dreams that are there, the 'illusion' with which I have always breathed".

No me dejes caer, Meteorito, Cuando Anochezca, Iris, Una Parte de mí/ Rocío, Camino del Mar, Gaby, Chat/Niña, Frsko, Olivia/Nina/Celia, Primavera and butterflies are a capricious and fascinating musical journey, where all his musical references converge, but also his life experiences. This is one of the strongest values, in my opinion, of the album; although he does not paint a portrait of my generation, he speaks like us, even if it is from poetry. The author does not pretend to make up his voice, he does not want to transfigure himself, it is him, it is his times, it is his language. It is our truth.

Meteorite is the second song on the album. It is a relay song/race in terms of the states of emotion and transformation that the character/Tobias goes through. It is the recurring warning ("if a meteorite falls on me, it's going to hurt my head/ don't leave me to the fire because I don't want to burn you").") of what can happen to the character if he forces the randomness of destiny, the power of nature, urbanity and interpersonal relationships that shape the singer and warns him about his own destiny/relaying career. It is a living song, like a jungle full of noises and sounds, like getting lost in a painting by Wilfredo Lam while the flute plays in the Bellas Artes theater.

Chat/Girl is that conversation between the blind lover and the lover who listens and acts on the words and the puerile and fleeting romance. The clumsy game of conquest within a chat room, the intermittent plea of the lover to at least be rewarded with the voice of the one he loves. Not only is the lover exposed, but the vulnerable being who surrenders to the relationship, but who asks not to be changed in body or attitude. It seeks the acceptance of a feeling in all its electric and imperfect form, which can be the kiss, the desert, the calm, the name and the uncertainty of age. It is the fleeting practice of love at the stroke of an almost bluesalmost pop.

"Away from the heat my soul is refreshed.", sounds in Frsko. This song has a more urban and catchy rhythm, with more intense lyrics and a more modern production. It is a song that makes you want to move and dance. There is no suspicion, it is a song of renunciation and the need for independence, when the character moves out of his comfort zone/partner, who has been inconsistent with his feelings and begins to sing his departure out of that passing body, he prepares to soothe his soul in other souls or in his own, to continue the journey.

With Spring we come to the rebirth of the character/artist who, before singing to an old love, sings to himself, to his spirit that renews itself among springs and new waters, to return alive from the hands of the green and white season, gathering new energy and mysteries. "Life is like a candle", says the song, to tell us that, although not everything is casual, although the wind does not always blow northwards, the one who sings does not let himself be won by pains, he is reborn in music before falling completely.

As I mentioned before, The Illusion is the result of seven years of composition and more than ten years of studying music. Tobías counts on the collaboration of eleven artists in the concert, who create a unique and emotional atmosphere. Something he calls "a very rich rhythm section", in a format composed of percussion, strings and winds. The first one, is assumed by Lester Domínguez in the drum; Jesús Estrada, both on Cuban percussion and on miscellaneous and Jose Benítez LoseMyName on digital percussion and sequence. On pianos and keyboards, Andy Despaigne Chongo; the bassist is Joel del Río and on electric guitar is Kevin Espinosa. On the winds, Lachy Torriente on trumpet, Yosiel Amaro on trombone and Claudio González on flute. Two backup voices, Suylen Matamoros and Roberto Daniel Rueda, complement Tobías, who provides vocals and also splits between guitar and keyboards.

If I could summarize the experience of listening to this album, I would be left with no regrets with the first impression: it seems to me a very carefree album, light -without being simplistic-; like someone who wants to make music with freedom, just to enjoy with friends, to live the moment and the sensoriality of music. It is an album that helps me not to succumb to disenchantment and the other evils that surround my fellow men; on the contrary, it reminds me of the dreams and the moments in which they were dreamed, it reminds me that we are not so alone. To quote Alfonso, "I hope it is only a symptom that the best moment is yet to come".