Nicola Cruz’s Prender el Alma was built through a process his label describes almost literally as layer by layer, instrument by instrument and drum by drum. The Ecuador-based producer connected electronic production with Andean and Afro-influenced musical ideas, acoustic guitar, percussion and voices. The resulting approach has sometimes been described as “Andes Step.”
The phrase matters less to me than the production question underneath it.
Electronic music software encourages everything toward a grid. Notes can be corrected, percussion quantised and loops copied perfectly. Traditional musical practices often contain timing, tuning and phrasing that resist that kind of standardisation.
The interesting part is what happens when both worlds remain audible.
Technology does not automatically modernise traditional sound, and traditional instruments do not automatically make electronic music culturally deeper. The real work is in deciding what should remain irregular.
A grid becomes much more interesting when some sounds are allowed to push against it.
