Vital

CD Vital Fernando Otero

Argentine pianist, composer and bandleader Fernando Otero's new album for World Village, Vital, is a meditative yet emotionally refractive set of eleven modern chamber music pieces, redolent of new-style tango, twentieth century atonality, sharp-edged downtown jazz, and other sounds Otero picked up at home and on his travels. The opening duet for piano and violin, "Nocturno," is a limping waltz that appears to depict an insomniac's midnight musings; it leads seamlessly into two succeeding yet unrelated movements. "Siderata," scored for six players including a bandonéon, Argentina's emblematic squeezebox, is an exercise in stillness, like the uneasy peace that so often precedes a difficult decision. "La Abundancia," another duet, is roundly, ripely melodic; but the wryly titled "Reforma Mental" is scored for eight players and from its opening keyboard arpeggios, depicts a dialogue between voices in conflict, with scampering piano runs periodically overwhelmed by groaning, overbearing horns. Between them, the violin and bandonéon achieve a small universe of sonic color on "Noche Illuminata," while "Fin de Revision" contradicts its title by continuing to mutate and evolve until the final, wheezing exhalation.