Clapping Music
Ramona Córdova : the boy who floated freely (US,2005,re.2006)****°
Why does media swallow Devendra Banhart blindly as if he’s THE weird voice of America, while there are many more oddities around, like Death Western in the low range, and Ramona Cordova in the high registers. The child Ramona seemed to have had the freedom and pleasure of expressing all his fantasy characters into beautiful music, in a way that developed up to his twenties when he was able to deliver all his poetically rich, passionate musical explorations. The whole presentation is attractive like a colourful puppet theatre for children, and as a letter from a good friend in a faraway country, for grown-ups. I really like his “introduction”, the Spanish on “Inside the Gipsy Bar”, but also his more serious modes, like “Brother”, “Sung with the Birds”, “One Day, Someday”,... Most serious songs still have that hidden poetic and different vision, turning the world into a curing lullaby full of more colourful contrasts, and above all a true love for life, instead of making a new complaint addition to the heritage series of spoiled cries. Even when the birds don’t sing and everything’s left alone there’s that moment of peace and contemplation that has its own beauty awaiting the first next nice thing to happen, because it will with the right focal turning point. “One day, someday” is almost like seeing a vision of an old wise man later, seeing in two ways the poetic splendid creativity of the child meeting in music, with some musical saws and glockenspiel,.. in the background.
Some of the early songs on the album are like perfect cereals music that should be delivered for free with each box of cereals, while others should be presented to lonely old men that now have a disappointed vision of the world and await their death in front of the window, to give them something like a cherry on their cake of life, to blossom their cheeks once more with wonder. The original Eca music CD was sold out in no time, and it is now taken over by Clapping Music for a second issue, like a new birth to fly out in the wide cruel world, that needs a bit of loose tension with humour, fantasy and simple effective creativity, a bit of love and care in a personalised focus. Brilliant !
