The clever, highly conceptual, and eternally sympathetic Montrealer Mini\u00e8re pops up on the radar with a little something he tossed together, nothing too ostentatious despite its monarchical resources, yet entirely welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conceit was to rifle through the dusty stack of folios to which the title refers, a sort of crowd-sourced, canonical compendium of royally ratified Iberian Renaissance music, as a catalyst for impulsive creativity in confinement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Great liberties are of course taken with the source material. It\u2019s hard to imagine the original manuscript for \u201cHarto De Tanto Porfia\u201d included directives regarding gloomy post-punk bass and cavernous drums, or that \u201cEn El Servicto De Vos\u201d was intended as a celestial space-rocker in the soft, warm French style. Nor is there a hurdy-gurdy or bladderpipe to be heard here, which is probably all for the best (a clavichord might have been welcome, but the vintage synths more than suffice).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, the five-track EP is pretty much unrecognizable as any sort of exercise in auditory archaeology. Instead, it\u2019s a batch of long, patient, instrumental meditations on simple, bittersweet motifs, each with its own appealing character. Crafted for the common folk, fit for a king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n