caleta dos review by david vélez

Infertility is a world constantly evoked by Adrian Juarez when he talks about his release Caleta Dos which was published through the great and very diverse Berlin netlabel Resting Bell (founded by Christian Roth). For this review I contacted Adrian and asked him a few questions about the creative process for this release and the way he perceives it.
Adrian Juarez' catalog is diverse and colorful, but there are some releases where he shows a particularly dark, mysterious and static side; The two versions of Caleta (uno and dos) and his release with the great Argentinian sound artist Pablo Reche Split EP, are great examples of this soulless and yet soulful side of Adrian Juarez.
Adrian composed this release during the autumn when he felt the winter approaching. The fact that he was born in the countryside explains why the notion of fertility and infertility has such a strong and personal meaning for him. He also talks about organic rotting and death as elements he feels influenced him to compose these pieces; For him, the land is something very important:the smell, the humidity, the contact with dirt and how they change from autumn to winter are experiences that deeply marked him.
The countryside is a place of strong contrasts: it can be so colorful, joyful and vivid during the summer, but also desolated and gloomy when hard rain and snow strikes, transforming these once-organic environments into lifeless cold, grey and rocky surreal landscapes.
When I asked Adrian if Caleta dos was a soundtrack for a short film, what he thought the film would be about, he responded: "About trees made of flesh, who die and then don´t nourish the earth. Or about anything else."
...which is a very surrealistic vision in terms of images and meaning.
I personally feel that Caleta dos is a release about physical and mental wandering as there is nothing we can do about the cold but face it and eventually find the beauty in it. The conditions and landscape are stronger than us, and stronger than our need for warmth, beauty, and color.
We could love gloom and we could love desolation, because sometimes they are all that we have.
The following is the the translation of a series of three questions that I asked to Adrian before I wrote this review.*
Q. What environment were you in when you recorded these pieces and what do you think were the elements in your surroundings that caused the album to sound the way it does?
A. Deep inside me I feel that the sounds of those pieces are related to the arrival of the cold. I started composing them at the beginning of the fall, so I worked in midst of a dry, somewhat deathlike atmosphere…I tend to experience the smells of each season very keenly, especially the smell of vegetables, grass, and leaves, and I am fully awake to the behavior of the earth, the shifts in the amount of humidity in different seasons, and, above all, the wafts of rotting organic matter that are always circulating. Although I’ve now been living in a city for two years, I lived in a village my whole life, and it was filled with those smells. I remember the smell of the harvest and the like which filled your lungs when you got out of bed in the morning. These surroundings cleanse your spirit and are decisive in your life experience, which is why I believe -now that the pieces have been finished for some time- that they contain some of that infertile vibe, with a resulting emotional infertility.
Q. If Caleta dos were to become the soundtrack of a short film, what do you think the film would be about?
A. About trees made of flesh, who die and then don´t nourish the earth. Or about anything else.
Q. If you could recommend the perfect place and time to listen to Caleta dos, what would they be?
A. Someplace far from mechanical noises and filled with natural rotting smells. Or just anywhere, provided that you feel a strong emotional rotting.