This is heavy. pa is the second album from this North Texas duo of Ernesto Montiel and Miguel Espinel, recorded on March 21st, 2020 right before most of us went into lockdown and the pandemic really started to scream. Additionally, Montiel’s father died the day before in Venezuela. In some ways, pa becomes a poignant elegy and a documentation of mourning even if neither were explicit motivations behind the album. Hollow sounds are processed into new, organic forms while atmospheric tones spread underneath as a blanket to hold everything in. Over the course of an hour, emotions rise like mountains, sonic barbs cutting through the dense, hazy echo. Montiel and Espinel bend and endless array of found sounds and recordings into scraping textures and original forms. Unfolding like an epic aural poem, pa demands close attention and the deeper you get, the more treasure you will find.
