By José Gandue @Gandour
Photo: Agustin Dusserre
When one listens to the Argentine artist Sergio Ch., It is said that there are a number of musicians who create their songs as daily records of their mood and who take whatever elements they have at hand to quickly capture them, like casting one demon out of the body, while the next one is soon being conceived.
Some consider Sergio Chotsourian, due to his time with legendary bands like Natas and Ararat, to be one of the main architects of Argentine Stoner Rock. His music, from the beginning, It has had a dense soul and an experimental heart. After closing his chapter with Natas, Chotsourian rethought his relationship with electric guitars and began to explore other musical elements. He inherited an English piano from the 1950s and, in a self-taught and playful way, discovered his own understanding of the instrument. He returned to his roots and dusted off his criolla guitar, without losing the thick sound that resonated in his body. And he embarked (and this process is irresponsibly imagined by the writer of this piece) on reinventing folklore in his own way, without forgetting or trying to rid his heart of that damned rock poison. The result is 1974, his new album.
This disc contains 13 songs recorded in low fi, in the rawest and most honest way possible. Some are exciting melodic pieces, like The Stones o Red Room, and others are instrumental outbursts, joyful keyboard destructions like The Ships o 4737 minutes. Deeply reverberated vocals and a consistently deep sound where every strum of the strings contains its own tremor. This is an album to listen to from beginning to end, without rest, without pause. Do it, at least the first time, alone and in silence, as if performing an act of introspection., as if he needed to find lost gods in his imagination. It's not an album for everyone. Some will complain, saying that 1974 It's a work too dense for their minds, and the experimentation will overwhelm them. But those who listen with pleasure and patience will understand that Sergio Ch. is offering us a compilation of shocking recordings, exhausting and devastating, a genuine act of open-spirited rock, as few can witness these days.