Back and Forth

gorgeous, meditative and affecting stuff from inigo ugarteburu. ugarteburu is a basque composer whose discography includes cult avant folk groups carcascara and cafe teatro. 'back and forth' is a wide-screen expression, a record that blooms from a sense of stillness and fans outwards. often centred around beautiful guitar or other stringed instruments played simply, each song features lush arrangements, be they horns, string sections, reeds, that build and build with interlocking melodies. there's an overwhelming feeling of dissolution, of disappearance into a collectiveness or feeling of togetherness that's illustrated aptly on the front cover - a similar feeling one gets when listening to the works of say acoustic jim o'rourke, late 70s john fahey or even the sweeping statements of ennio morricone. a beautiful record that has it's arms outward.