Argentinian, Buenos Aires-based cellist Cecilia Quinteros is a classically-trained musician who likes to explore and expand the sonic palette of her instrument and is active in the local scene of free-improvised music, free jazz, noise, sound art and interdisciplinary performances with dancers. Quinteros resided in Denmark and performed there with local musicians, and commissioned a solo work from Israeli-Swedish composer Dror Feiler. She also collaborated with local musicians such as double bass player Amanda Irarrázabal, synth player Cecilia López, pianist Paula Shocron and sax player Ada Rave.

Narel is Quinteros’ first solo album and offers a seven-movement suite for overdubbed and manipulated cellos and electronic manipulations that reflect her extensive experiences and musical interests. She creates a tense, often dissonant and eerie, minimalist ambiance, with repetitive motifs that seem to engulf the listener in an endless, mysterious stream of resonant waves and overtones. The suite moves between unsettling and darker moods, atmospheres and drones, and from the dense and haunting to the solitary and melancholic and the meditative, serene and spiritual, and offers a captivating and immersive listening experience.

This suite highlights Quinteros’ imaginative and sophisticated sonic language and her remarkable command of the cello, with her own extended bowing techniques and thoughtful manipulations. Quinteros is a creative force that deserves wider recognition.

Eyal Hareuveni

Cecilia Quinteros (cellos, processes)