JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA - Tracing Back The Radiance

Some records aren't as simple as they seem. Most are capsules of beauty and creative
vision, or sublime objects of expression which occupy the abstract realms. But the rare few
are also discrete philosophies, realised in sound - a truth brought to the forefront by Mexican
Summer veteran, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's, latest venture, Tracing Back The Radiance. A
radical departure from pop drenched melodies which have defined his recent efforts, its
experimental forms offer a dynamic rethinking of the terms and possibilities of discourse and
collaboration - a vast ambient landscape of abstraction, texture, and tone, beneath which
lingers a veiled vision, addressing the challenges of our increasingly disassociated age.
A slow, delicate meditation - open space punctuated by the restrained harmonics of
vibraphone, processing, flute, pedal steel, synthesizer, piano, organ, and voice, Tracing Back
The Radiance grew from a few simple piano lines, a need for change, and an evolving
process which fell somewhere between conversation, singular vision, and a wild game of
exquisite corpse - Cantu-Ledesma acting as contributor, servant, and guiding force to the
emerging album's all-star cast of voices - John Also Bennett, Marilu Donavan, Chuck
Johnson, Gregg Kowalsky, Mary Lattimore, David Moore, Meara O'Reilly, Jonathan Sielaff,
Roger Tellier Craig, and Christopher Tignor, each responding and intervening from various
corners of North America.
With nods to historic high-water marks in ambient and electroacoustic music, as well Italian
minimalist pioneers like Gusto Pio, Lino Capra Vaccina, and Francesco Messina + Raul
Lovisoni, Cantu-Ledesma delves forward with one of his most ambitious, elegant, and
exciting endeavors of his career, retaining every bit of the ease and openness in musical
language which has guided him across the decades. A beautiful, immersive, melancholic,
and contemplative balm for the troubled times in which it was made.

Vinyl release of Jefre Cantu-ledesma - Tracing Back The Radiance. Released through MEXICAN SUMMER and available on LP.