Eñaut Elorrieta's Festina lens, a disc as effective as it is inexhaustible

The fascination that precedes novelty sometimes blinds us; we go too far along the new paths, sometimes, when we realize it. When it comes to music, there is a danger when it comes to putting our songs in the hands of someone capable of carrying them everywhere.

The musicians Eñaut Elorrieta (Gernika-Lumo, 1975) and Bryce Dessner (The National, Bon Iver, Nick Cave, Labèque Ahizpak, Taylor Swift) and David Chalmin (Triple Sun, Thom Yorke, Madonna) have, however, avoided the vagaries of temptation and put their rich knowledge in favor of songs on the album Festina lente (Elkar, 2026), to push the melodies created by Elorrieta when to amalgamate, but never to load or cover.

Dessner, Chalmin, Ben Lanz, and Raphael Seguinier have worn keyboards, hypnotic guitar harmonies, piano, subtle electronics, bass, drums, and, as an epic guide, wind (those metals in the second half of February!) in the studio of La Fabrique des Ondes Senpere, Eñaut's acoustic guitars and luminous melodies.

As a dear friend who leaves your place and who, while always standing by your side, never stands above you, these wonderful arrangements have the ten songs of the album as tireless and generous companions, from the insinuating Jazzistic introduction to the first song, Ahal, to the outro spiritualist of the last song containing the sincere and passionate words of Amets Arzallus.

On his way from one side to the other, he lives the pulses of rock the second single of his album "Erreka", at the rate of timbals, and "The Well", a piece guided by silences and metals, both step by step; "Fly me" is an atmospheric proclamation against stillness ("If I am protected by the silent majority/if I am left in my wound/fly me"); and "A Friday joy", a round single, can serve as a guide to learn how to write a rich and moving song with a wonderful melody.

They are followed by the piece "Under the Moon", which spreads the echoes of American folk; " Clear Exits "and" Fantasy ", which can function as an umbilical cord with respect to the earlier works of Elorrieta," Old Mother "and" February "(metals now raise the song, for example, in the work of threads in earlier works); and" Looking up ", a song that leads to more electronic and ethereal territories soaked in the Eñaut layer.

Festina lensis as effective as it is inexhaustible; it has memorable and attractive melodies, but many more edges for curious listeners in the musical universe created by Dessner, Chalmin and Elorrieta.