{"id":52727,"date":"2021-09-20T09:51:41","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T13:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/records\/jose-gonzalez-local-valley\/"},"modified":"2021-09-20T09:53:58","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T13:53:58","slug":"jose-gonzalez-local-valley","status":"publish","type":"records","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/records\/jose-gonzalez-local-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez – Local Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If there was a quote to summarize the existential wonderment of Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s fourth studio album, Local Valley<\/em>, it would be English poet William Blake\u2019s, \u201cIf the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.\u201d  The quote references the endless possibilities that we as human beings and as a society can achieve and sometimes get lost in. For Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez, a songwriter that dabbles between different schools of thought between each release, this is the \u201clocal valley\u201d\u2014the very point we as humans are experiencing right now, or eons ago. There is a chasm somewhere in the beyond to which Gonz\u00e1lez retreats, and brings back songs that chronicle generations in four short minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first collection of songs from the Swedish\/Argentinian singer-songwriter in five years is at its heart about universal humanism, and uses Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s gentle cadence, classical indie acoustic guitar (which has been compared to Nick Drake), and the odd simplistic, sampled drumbeat, to provide a relaxing and tranquil odyssey of sound. It\u2019s an album you throw on while a candle burns from beginning to end in the background, and while the wax is slowly consumed, you begin to think everything might be okay. It\u2019s a breath of sweet relief during this tumultuous time where every release of art is about humanity grappling with a world pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s near impossible to listen to Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s music and not pick out the poetic weaving of phrases like \u201cVisions, imagining the worlds that could be \/ cycles of growth and decay, patiently inching away to unreachable utopias.\u201d He comes across as a language savant and admirer\u2014in all three of his languages, Swedish, English, and Spanish\u2014but never in a pretentious way. There are a few tracks geared more to dancing than to philosophical teachings, like \u201cHead On\u201d and \u201cSwing,\u201d but where Local Valley<\/em> shines is in taking complex ideas about life and summarizing them in blissful metaphors. Yes, Gonz\u00e1lez, whether he knows it or not, is a master of magical realism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n