Lanza de Longino is the first single off Ricardo Gallo's forthcoming album "Un Mundo"; a multilayered and across genre project and concept in itself.
This first track is a collaboration with musician Andrés Gualdrón (Animal Blanco, Animales Blancos), a luminous lyricist, musician, percussionist, and producer in his own right.
Gallo sends the tracks composed for “Un Mundo” to collaborators along with a couple of questions that prompt the contribution to the piece:
Will we be able as species to evolve and organize for the common good of life in our one world before the greed of a few speeds up our destruction?
Can the arts and culture make an impact towards a positive global change soon enough, or is its contribution too indirect and insignificant?
Andrés Gualdrón's response in the lyrics uses religious imagery as the point of departure to bounce back with more questions about the destiny of humanity and the role of technology in our future.
The music of “Lanza de Longino” condenses Gallo’s interests and expansion of his music such as the use of Afro-Caribbean folk rhythms in new ways, sound design using synthesizers and samples, creating uneven or unexpected phrase lengths, performing on diverse keyboards, in this case, a slightly overdriven Rhodes electric piano, and the joy of conversing with other creators through collaborations.
lyrics
Original Lyrics in Spanish by Andrés Gualdrón:
(English translation below)
Lanza de Longino
Atravesando el costado de cristo
De la herida sale sangre, la misma sangre del hombre
Pero también brota agua, agua de la eternidad
Lanza del destino
Cada hombre lleva sangre y lleva agua en su camino
En la sangre está presente el miedo mismo de estar vivos
En el agua resplandece el anhelo por amar
Por amar en un continuo, por romper cada frontera
Por unirnos en un cuerpo, en un cuerpo sin final
Lanza del destino
Y ahora que estamos todos conectados y adheridos
Y ahora que estamos todos en el mismo mar fundidos
Ahora que somos nodos
En redes de alta tensión
Por qué todo esto se siente tan distinto del amor?
Lanza de Longino
En el agua de la herida somos un mismo ser vivo
Luces sin destino
Un unísono continuo
Sin fisuras ni estallidos
Una forma y un latido
Un camino sin edad
Lanza de Longino
Mas la sangre de la herida
Nos separa en soledades
Nos divide en unidades
Nos despierta en un lugar
Donde no vemos el mundo
Sino partes del conjunto
Donde solo somos puntos
De una imagen ancestral
Lanza del destino
Y ahora en este nuevo espacio de caminos enredados
En este nuevo universo hecho de una misma señal
En este único artefacto
Que simula los contactos
Que nos traza un mismo vuelo
Que nos quiere vincular
Lanza del destino
Lograremos que la sangre se diluya por el río?
Podremos amplificarnos
En un sólo litoral?
Y ahora que estamos todos conectados y adheridos
Y ahora que somos una sola máquina sin ruidos
El sueño de los oleajes
El sueño de estar fundidos
Se siente tan diferente al paraíso original
Nadamos entre la sangre o en el agua de la mar?
Es esto un gran simulacro o la marea sin final?
______________________________________
(English translation by Carla Macchiavello):
Spear of Longinus
piercing Christ’s side
Blood streams from the wound, the same human blood
Yet water also flows from it, water of eternity
Spear of destiny
Each human being carries blood and water in their path
The fear of being alive is present in the blood
Glistening in the water is the longing to love
To love in a continuum, to shatter each frontier
To unite us in one body, in a body without end
Spear of destiny
And now that we are all connected and adhered
and now that we are all fused in the same sea
Now that we are nodes
In high tension webs
Why does this all feel so different from love?
Spear of Longinus
In the wound’s water we are the same living being
Lights without destiny
A continuous unison
with no fissures or explosions
One form and one heartbeat
One road without age
Spear of Longinus
But the wound’s blood
separates us into solitudes
divides us into units
wakes us in a place
where we cannot see the world,
just parts of the whole
where we are only dots
of an ancestral image
Spear of destiny
And now in this novel space of tangled paths
In this new universe made up of a sole signal
In this unique artifact
that simulates contacts
that traces a singular flight for us
that wants to bind us
Spear of destiny
Will we be able to dilute the blood through the river?
Can we amplify ourselves
into a single coast?
And now that we are all connected and adhered
and now that we are a single noiseless machine
The dream of the swell
The dream of being fused
feels so different from the original paradise.
Do we swim in the blood’s midst or in the sea’s waters?
Is this a large simulacrum or the unending tide?
__________________________________________
credits
released August 27, 2021
Produced by Ricardo Gallo.
Composed by Ricardo Gallo and Andrés Gualdrón
Lyrics by Andrés Gualdrón
Fender Rhodes, synthesizer, beat programming, music composition and concept by Ricardo Gallo.
Voices composed and performed by Andrés Gualdrón
Additional percussion by Andrés Gualdrón
Bass performed by Edward Pérez
Composed and programmed at bluegallo music in Queens NY
Gualdrón's voice recorded in Salzburg, Austria, estudio portátil Dinastía.
Rhodes and bass recorded at the Creamery Studios Brooklyn NY, by Quinn McCarthy
Additional voices and percussion by Gualdrón recorded at JuGa music Bogotá Colombia, by Julián Gallo.
Mixed by Camilo Correa in Queens, NY.
Mastered by Carlos Arturo Silva at C1Mastering in Bogotá, Colombia.
Pianist, keyboardist, electronic musician and composer Ricardo Gallo has written for acoustic and electro-acoustic formats,
short films, videos, dance, installations, multimedia stage productions, and has performed and written for jazz and improvisatory groups. He has published 14 albums as a leader.
He maintains a strong connection with Bogotá's music scene and is currently based in New York....more
Santiago Botero's project influenced by the music of Andrés Landero, the cumbia accordion king of Colombia. This is an electric and fun album. Ricardo Gallo
