Arcángel releases ‘Quijote de los sueños’,
his fourth flamenco cante album
The cantaor has musicians like Dorantes and Miguel Ángel Cortés on the recording
Flamenco-world.com, September 2011
Translation: J. Kopec
Arcángel sets himself the challenge of taking a step forward. The flamenco cantaor releases ‘Quijote de los sueños’, a disc on which he unites the concepts of “purity” and “renovation”. The piano and arrangements by Dorantes, the guitars by Miguel Ángel Cortés and Daniel Méndez, the lyrics by José Luis Ortiz Nuevo and by writer Juan Cobos Wilkins… are part of an album which demonstrates that, as the cantaor says, “flamenco wants to evolve from the roots”. The repertoire includes songs such as the tangos ‘Pa qué tanto discutir’, the alegrías ‘Alas y olas’, the soleá ‘Vivo por recordarte’ and the fandangos to Paco Toronjo entitling the record. The disc comes out on sale on October 11th, 2011, five years after his last studio album, ‘Ropavieja’.
Arcángel defines ‘Quijote de los sueños’ as “a varied record with a lot of open fronts, with quality in the texts, contributing new concepts... That’s the plan: purity and renovation”. The cantaor has wanted to make a fourth studio album “deep-rooted in tradition, but with an absolutely contemporary spirit”. The record opens with the tangos ‘Pa qué tanto discutir’, with music by Arcángel and Dorantes, lyrics by José Luis Ortiz Nuevo and guitars by Daniel Méndez and Miguel Ángel Cortés, who appear nearly throughout the entire album and usually accompany the cantaor live. The Huelva fandangos entitling the album are dedicated to Paco Toronjo, with lyrics by writer Juan Cobos Wilkins. ‘Alas y olas’ are alegrías created by the composer duo key to this disc: music by Arcángel and lyrics by Cobos Wilkins.
There are some folk lyrics on the disc, like those of ‘Vivo por recordarte’, a “vertical soleá” accompanied by the guitar of Miguel Ángel Cortés, while in ‘Tu voz es mi voz’ the lyrics are by Spanish singer Antonio Orozco. Both team up in a duo to perform a song halfway between tango and rumba with pop instrumentation. ‘Cuando se dice te quiero’ takes up fandangos again with lyrics by Manuel Correa, then making way for the bulerías ‘Amor mío’. In the final stretch of the album, there’s ‘Los dulces peligros de la música’ with piano, arrangements and music by Jesús Cayuela, some Huelva fandangos with violin and cello, which lead up to the closing song ‘No consigo’ with music by Isidro Muñoz, producer of his previous disc ‘Ropavieja’. And with all of this new repertoire, Arcángel is determined “to display my music, to be a different musician who enjoys what he does and tries to outdo himself each and every day. To be myself more than ever”.
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