The Music Video For Laura Chinelli's "Llévame" Was Shot In Casa Blanca (Paysandú)
The best song from Laura Chinelli’s “Historias De Invierno” has now got its own music video. Shot in Paysandú, the clip for “Llévame” has Laura trying to hitch a ride on a road, only to end up succeeding in the most unexpected of ways…
The video has been directed by Salomón Reyes for Saladero 19.
Laura Chinelli
One of the most endearing Uruguayan albums of 2010 has just become available online. Laura Chinelli’s “Historias De Invierno” can now be downloaded in its entirety here.
The album (which was produced by Laura’s long-time collaborator Fran Nasser) was originally featured on MusicKO in March, 2011. People in the US and elsewhere could always listen to some of its tracks on Laura’s MySpace profile, but this is the first time that most of you will get to listen to songs like “Más Allá Del Tiempo” [Beyond Time].
Find attached the videos for the tracks that top and tail the album, “Ya No Más” [Not Any More] and “Sueño Profundo” [Deep Dream]:
One of the sweetest songs from “Historias de Invierno” gets a guitar-and-voice treatment for this live performance. I actually like this version of “Si Me Pierdo” [If I Get Lost] better than the one on the original album – the brittleness that lies at its core has a much better chance to come through.
This video was recorded live at El Tartamudo, a well-known Uruguayan venue favored by independent and emerging artists. It was recorded and edited by Cecilia Dulce.
Rebecca Black was the invariable focus of attention for a good part of March. Her sudden rise to fame, the questionable quality of her song “Friday”, the polarised (and highly-charged) reactions that it caused (including some surprising covers)… it was recently announced that “Friday” has become the most hated song ever. If anything, these events show us that nowhere are the definitions of what is acceptable and what is not modified as quickly as on the Internet.
Of course, I also found time to keep on writing about artists from my country, Uruguay. On March, I wrote a really moving piece about the debut album by Laura Chinelli, “Historias De Invierno”. And I also covered the release of Picnic’s debut EP, “Amigos Imaginarios”. Check the review – it comes with a download link.
Finally, the music startups that I covered were Jog.fm, Music Lunge, Like.fm and Find You Some Vinyl. If all goes well, on April I am publishing interviews with Find You Some Vinyl’s Lucas Hravobsky and Music Lunge’s. Sergio Giles. And I’m also starting a feature in which I’m interviewing Uruguayan artists that have taken residence in foreign countries (or plan to do so soon), and foreigners that have come to Uruguay to nurture their art. I’m going to interview people who are really passionate about what they do, and I’m sure I will be able to show you what makes this country and all its people so special.
“Historias De Invierno” is Laura Chinelli's debut album. The band that recorded it included Fran Nasser, Nicolás Demczylo and Álvaro Barneche.
Is there life before love? Is there a time that exists outside of the prolongation of single moments that come to define us sentimentally? Or must we all live slave to that prolongation of moments, as if caught in an emotional ebb and flow which means all that happens will be validated by what had once come to be, ever and ever again?
Laura Chinelli’s debut album is nestled between all these questions, in a point where eyes are wide open, but often can only stare straight into that night which is not darkness but the blinding light of conscience. The majority of the songs on the album (which has been suitably named “Historias De Invierno” [Winter Tales]) have the singer retracing her steps through bridges that are not even there any longer, or burning with the kind of aching fire that is forever starting and stopping.
Laura Chinelli
In more places than one, “Historias De Invierno” feels like a musical variation on Villiers de L’Isle-Adams’ “Axel” – a story where the memory of love can modify all the present layers of perception. On songs like “Si Me Pierdo” [If I Get Lost], characters can’t see each other any longer. But their reflections still live in their eyes, and will keep on being there in spite of that blinding light which tries to overcome their staying force.
Other songs such as “Debajo De La Lluvia” [In The Rain] are more direct and rueful, very similar in tone and message to the defeatism of a song like Richard Thompson’s “She Sang Angels To Rest”. Compare Laura’s “puedo no volver a ser, puedo no ver, puedo no creer” [I might never be again, never see, never believe] and “Y si hoy soy lo que soy, y si no tengo a donde ir, y si hoy pierdo la razón” [And what if today I’m what I’m not, what if I have nowhere to go, what if I lose my mind] to Richard’s “how do you fall when you have already fell for the best”.
Yet, there are also moments of sentimental victory. The deepest comes as the album is ending with the song “Llévame“ [Carry Me]:
Llévame en tu mente
Búscame en los paisajes que te gustan
Búscame entre la gente
Búscame también en la oscuridad
[Carry me in your mind
Look for me in that scenery you love
Look for me in the crowd
And also, look for me in the darkness] Continue reading