Diez (ten in Spanish) is the eighth album as a bandleader by Argentinian, Buenos Aires-based pianist-composer Marco Sanguinetti. It completes a trilogy of numbered projects that began with Ocho (eight, Acqua, 2013) and 9 (Exiles, 2017), in which Sanguinetti’s search for a musical identity rooted in the vibrant, cultural mix of the contemporary city of Buenos Aires.
Sanguinetti is a musician with many gifts and interests, often quite different and contrasting ones. His music references the romanticism of Franz List, the avant-garde, irreverent games of John Cage and the minimalism of Phillip Glass, but he also dedicated a double album to the songs of Radiohead (Cómo Desaparecer Completamente, 2016). For Diez, he assembled a chamber-futurist quintet with cellist Belén Echeveste, double bass player Ezequiel Dutil, drummer Tomás Babjaczuk and DJ-turntablist Migma. Sanguinetti added field recordings ((landscapes of the streets of San Telmo, a clothes dryer, voices and vehicles, among others) to his piano playing and did all the arrangements and the production.
The ten short untitled pieces of Diez reflect the restless and eclectic sonic vision of Sanguinetti and all feature clear yet lyrical melodies that emerge from dense sound atmospheres. Sanguinetti has worked on editing the music with rock producer Mariano Esain and Diez offers subtle but enigmatic and imaginative sonic images of lively urban sceneries. He matches beautifully classical, romantic music with the immediacy of jazz improvisations, and unpredictable yet always clever interventions by Migma.
Sanguinetti worked on Diez with graphic designer Laura Varsky who has developed a limited, special edition of this album as a book that features contributions by 100 illustrators who reflect on the music and named Diez. Una escritura musical colectiva (A collective musical writing).
Eyal Hareuveni
Marco Sanguinetti (piano, field recordings ), Belén Echeveste (cello), Migma (tray of vinyl), Ezequiel Dutil (double bass), Tomás Babjaczuk (drums), Mariano Esain (electric bass, Soma Lyra-8 synthesizer)