Altoplano

4th Album

Thanks to my work that often takes me to countries far away from where I usually live, I discovered, in Guatemala, a truly unusual place, a plateau called Chuchumatanes, located in the Huehuetenango region in the North-West of Guatemalan territory.
An interesting and immediately evident feature are the dark stones that protrude into the vast landscape and the variety of vegetation with great botanical contrasts.
The plateau rises to about 3500 meters above sea level and the climatic characteristics allow it to host plants of considerable diversity: first of all the Agaves, true protagonists of the landscape, frequent especially in the semi-desert areas of the southern United States and Mexico. The inhabitants have shaped the territory using them as separation of the farms; together with these, you can find numerous conifers, such as tall Junipers, in a contrast between two varieties that is difficult to find elsewhere. On the Chuchumatanes plateau, the encounter between the plant world and the mineral world has created a place full of suggestions where I have portrayed and obviously interpreted, like a painter on a canvas, deep emotions, translating them into sound substance. The result is an Album full of deep contrasts where suggestion is the protagonist. Plots full of sounds but at the same time devoid of any pentagrammatic support, in an almost dodecaphonic style oscillate, passing from grotesque and primitive states to sweet, almost ecstatic moments. The intertwining of background, natural sounds, with the addition of synthesizer carpets, color the Album with an indefinite blanket. Since it was not possible for me to remain indifferent in front of such greatness, I wanted to return at least the maximum suggestion. As a testimony and memory of the ancient populations that live and have lived in this region, including the closest descendants of the Maya, I have included a short “extempore” monologue granted to me by Julio Fabian Pablo, a dear friend I met in the Huehuetenango region, a friend whom I thank with great gratitude for his precious availability. This monologue describing life on the Chuchumatanes was collected in the Mam language, an ancient Mayan language.