Love Again / FlorDeLoto

They say that the lotus flower grows in the swamps, that its roots feed on dirty water, on those particles of dust and clay that also make up the mud. That its spiral-shaped petals close and sink into the swamp when night falls to later emerge, with the first light of day, intact. pristine. In an act of true purification. They also say that there are those who associate it with a cosmic energy, with the awakening of consciousness, with the resurrection. 

All of this can be learned with a quick Google search. However—myths aside—the lotus flower is, above all, a beautiful flower. Not much to add after that. Perhaps that this symbol of creation somehow took root in a place in Havana in the most dystopian year of our lives, far from its natural habitat. And when I say “took root” I use the metaphor, of course; although I would not doubt that in the house of Gianluca Magrí Rico there was a cult ritual around a pool of dark waters waiting for these herbaceous plants to open up to the world in the morning. 

I can imagine no other reason for the birth of loveagain. Or yes: that one day in March 2020 Gianluca and David Martínez decided to take advantage of their free time, without live shows, and began to create music. They had the necessary instrumentation for it: cables to connect microphones, guitars, bass, etc.; so on the second floor of that house they began to record. First there were the bases, the melodies; then the sounds began to suggest things: English letters, for example. From that subconscious, sensory and also collective process, floating songs were born, which aspire to wisdom. was born a statement:. 

Because before FlorDeLoto —the band that emerged in 2018 in the heat of live performances with a format of bass, guitar, percussion, keyboards and to which they gradually incorporated cello, alto and tenor sax, some brass— still did not speak so loud. His first self-titled EP, with songs in Spanish, recorded in the PM Records studios, had more than enough —paradoxically— stridency; he lacked the calm that rests in the 10 songs of this new production. 

Gianluca will say, if asked, that the pandemic gave them the time to take that trip into the deep. Dedicated time, focused energy, more mature musical minds. And it may not be without reason if we think that loveagain, the album, was mixed and mastered twice. In the first the result did not convince them; They went for the second. No pressure. In the process they went to cute, a sound engineer who helped them find their way. Only when they thought they had a compact work, they left that second floor. It would be March and 2021. Exactly one year later. 

And perhaps speaking of “compact work” to refer to the first album by a Cuban band sounds like hyperbole, like an explosion of confetti. However —even when sounds pop up on this record that we think we recognize from somewhere, that flirt with music that we think we've heard before, which is, moreover, totally legitimate—, the "compact" in this case is given by the fact that there is a narrative thread that runs through the entire phonogram, as if it were telling us a story. And I say this because I have the feeling that each song announces the next and so on, until completing a circle; that the established order responded more to that search for narrative coherence than to the mere fact of placing themes with more or less impact in favor of sound balance. 

Let me explain: the album opens with the single which gives it its title and which is also a declaration of love. “I rather be alone to be with someone else / My queen / You can surely feel my spleen from the distance (…) / You are the sweet that makes my soul hungry / Come take me to the heavens please hurry”, says the letter. At this point, I —who know how to recognize someone who is “dead on the road” with another person— can assure you that this is a desperate cry in the face of loss. The howl of someone who never gets what they want or who always wants more. That is why the recurring idea of love again, because the above was not enough. 

(I leave the philosophical plane in which I have fallen and I celebrate, at minute 3:49, the conjunction of claps, choirs, percussion, and the trumpet, which makes beautiful flourishes throughout the entire phonogram). 

But if that is only the pilot chapter of this story, which starts with a request for love, the second track of the album is then the fall. Following that logic, in I Fall —not a casual title— we know from early on what we are going to find: someone who knows he is unable to get away from what is hurting him —“I wish that I could leave you so please run away now”—but who understands that, as trite as the phrase may be, second chances were never good. 

control me, third cut, is then the beginning of the release. Even when from the letter we are still facing the mechanisms of a toxic and dominant relationship; that liberation is marked by the flow of the theme that makes you, in a very physical way, loosen certain moorings —watch the accompanying video on YouTube, follow Gianluca's movements, his attempts to free himself: from a pain, from a feeling, from something that holds him back; see how he can't.  

By way of parenthesis: I liked finding in this song the reference to Paradise City, discover the wink to Real Project with the vocoder effect that around minute 1:54 distorts the voice of the leader of FlorDeLoto (if you ask him, he will say that it was advice from Yoyi Lagarza himself; he will talk about the importance of the people who inspire him). 

With faraway we are already far from the light, as it should be, and very close to destruction. The sensory universe is traversed by percussions of Afro and Caribbean descent, songs and voices that recreate an entire cult atmosphere. LoveTalk, meanwhile, confirms what we already knew: this is an experimental album. FlorDeLoto loves playing with sounds, with atmospheres, inserting the effect of a pencil writing on paper, while there is a voice that speaks to us about fear. This fifth song works, in the narrative of the album, as a midpoint, the plateau, the rest that the musicians needed to, with the second half, emerge. 

psychedelic love are the riffs on guitar —once again I remember Real Project, in its old formation, here—, is the voice of Camila Guevara Milanés, one of the guests, who summons us to recognize ourselves in the other. Gimme, seventh cut, has the trail of reggae, hip hop and features Antonio Milanés, aka A-Seven; while Satisfaction warns us that, effectively, the focus changed: “And now you try to control me / But I'm nothing you can control" 

shadows It speaks of learning, of spiritual growth that brings us the journey that we once agreed to undertake with the other person. They are the new opportunities, the days to come. But it's not until the tenth issue, These Days, that the circle is complete, the lights of dawn come out again, and we see the rainbow. It is at that moment that the lotus flower could germinate from the darkness of the swamp. 

That said, loveagain, as a record proposal, is a letter of introduction for a young band that seeks to channel all the influences that surround it and that contribute to its commitment to the experimentation of sounds and sensibilities. An experimentation undoubtedly necessary for the health of current Cuban music. Listen. Can you feel the flow? 

Listen love again here.