{"id":11600,"date":"2022-06-29T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T04:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/?p=11600"},"modified":"2022-06-28T10:15:33","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T14:15:33","slug":"vida-a-vida-disco-homenaje-a-santiago-feliu-nelson-vila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/vida-a-vida-disco-homenaje-a-santiago-feliu-nelson-vila\/","title":{"rendered":"Life to Life \/ Various Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cover album shouldn't be karaoke. However, it is what almost always ends up happening in projects like the album <\/span>life to life<\/span><\/i>, which Nelson Vila and the Bis Music label have seen fit to produce this year. It is a tribute to the first full-length by Santiago Feli\u00fa, the already legendary <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i> (Egrem, 1986), in which several artists interpret the songs that Santi's record premiere contained.<\/span><\/p>\n

In principle, any recycling should be able to justify itself. In other words, the reason for recycling should not be just what is recycled. The version cannot be humble. Its purpose would always have to be pretentious: to surpass the piece for which it is the cause, to relegate it until the public no longer remembers it and, through time, to become the definitive version. I'm not going to say how to improve, because no one knows that, but in general, efforts should be directed there regardless of the result that is finally achieved. Singing beautiful old songs by good and beautiful people will always be fine, but whoever approaches an album of studio versions solely from admiration and modesty must also be able to deal with oblivion.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don't like the title. It seems to me a bland and unattractive evocation, besides if you don't see it written you don't understand it. I don't like the cover, a rather ugly variation on the original that isn't a charm either. Nor do I like the fact that the album was conceived from a single orchestral source towards which various artists converged. The original themes have been reinterpreted by a nucleus of arrangers in a centralized way, and this limits the freedom of movement of the soloists invited to the project. Among the most interesting things that collective tribute albums bring is seeing how each performer connects with the original from their own style, their own sound, their own sensitivity. This album, on the other hand, sounds the same almost all the time, beyond the name that appears under the title of each song.<\/span><\/p>\n

The production has altered the original order of the themes and I think it's fine, because otherwise the <\/span>opening<\/span><\/i> it would have been the boring recreation that Amaury P\u00e9rez does from <\/span>Yesterday and today in love<\/span><\/i>. It's not Amaury's fault, he sings the way he sings. The fault lies with whoever believed that this song, among the 10 available, was the most suitable for him. With the exception of the symphonic interlude after the first chorus, which was cool, the piece never surprises. Amaury doesn't finish singing the first verse and one is already looking at the clock. I would have liked to see what he did, for example, with <\/span>battles over me<\/span><\/i>or <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i>, songs if you want more distant from his style. Perhaps we would have listened to the vertigo that he once showed in <\/span>Hacerte venir (Make you come) <\/span><\/i>or <\/span>where the water<\/span><\/i>. (<\/span>Here<\/span><\/a> I leave Santiago Feli\u00fa's version of the latter, as proof that for now Amaury has not returned the favor).<\/span><\/p>\n

life to life <\/span><\/i>open with <\/span>Letter and luck of having Gunila<\/span><\/i>, interpreted by Pablo Milan\u00e9s. This is by far the best cut on the album, hence the initial placement in the order even though it doesn't add much to its narrative, if there is one. I love how the arrangement has introduced the theme. The expressiveness and passion of the first bars produce a very well achieved effect of continuity, which hints at the existence of a previous conversation. The <\/span>intro <\/span><\/i>of this version is considerably shorter and, unlike the original, it does not set the tone, because the tone is already set. Pablo Milan\u00e9s, announces the arrangement, he is only going to resume now a dialogue that began 35 years ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n