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Jefre Cantu-Ledesma: Shining Skull Breath

  Tobias Fischer

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's album Shining Skull Breath, formerly a CD-R, gets remastered by James Plotkin and re-released on vinyl + download including two bonus tracks. And it's no less intriguing than last-year's favourite Love is a Stream.

Or to be more precise: It' no less in any respect whatsoever. Already as far back as 2007, Cantu-Ledesma demonstrated his ability to create and interweave textures with just the right balance between white (or any other colour for that matter) noise and harmony - and to then use the resulting sheets of sound to carve out compositions of extreme density and spaciousness. Astoundingly, his music worked at all volume levels - truth be told, listening to it loud could be a physically exhausting experience, but the music always more than repayed that energy.

Compared to Love is a Stream, the ten tracks on Shining Skull Breath don't seem quite as offensive. Rather, their tone is mysterious and slightly more dark, although one should use these words and categorisations carefully. After all, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's music always seems to be surrounded by an aura outside of the greyblack zone. His pieces seem to be glistening and to be bathing in a brightly shining light. This light particularly floods the more massive pieces, but it also sets the mood on some of the less aggressive tracks, such as „ The Last Time I Saw Your Face I Thought it was a Dying Star“, which establishes a horizon made of guitars.

It may also be the reason why these pieces exercise such a remarkable pull. Nothing more to say: Perfect.

By Hellmut Neidhardt.

Homepage: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
Homepage: Students of Decay Recordings