Amar la Trama
Encyclopedia
Amar la Trama is the ninth studio album
by Uruguay
an recording artist Jorge Drexler
. It was released by Warner Music on March 16, 2010, after a four-year gap since the release of his last album of original music. Drexler worked as co-producer, along with Matías Cella and Carles Campi Campón. The themes of the songs are his personal feelings inspired by journeys to Uruguay and Spain, his global wanderings, and the universal wonder of everyday moments.
The album received mostly positive reviews; critics commended Drexler's lyrics and his ability to perform live in front of a small audience during the recording sessions. The album entered the top five in Spain. The first single, "Una Canción Me Trajo Hasta Aquí
", also received praise. La Trama Circular, a DVD documentary about the recording sessions, is included on the standard edition of the album. On September 8, 2010, Amar la Trama received four nominations for the 11th Latin Grammy Awards
.
, for his composition "Al Otro lado del Río
" from the film The Motorcycle Diaries
. The following year, Drexler recorded and released 12 Segundos de Oscuridad (Twelve Seconds of Darkness), an album that received a Grammy Award nomination
. In 2008, Cara B, a live album
that includes his greatest hits along with cover versions of songs written by Leonard Cohen
, Caetano Veloso
, and Kiko Veneno
, was released. Cara B also received a Grammy nomination. The same year, Drexler wrote the score for the film The City of Your Final Destination
. During 2009, Drexler worked with Colombian performer Shakira
on the Spanish language versions of her singles "She Wolf
" and "Did it Again
", and recorded Amar la Trama in Madrid
, Spain. Drexler described the album as playful, without "the melancholy and anguish" of 12 Segundos.
. Drexler was the lead vocalist and played guitar, and was joined by a band composed of additional guitarists, a rhythm section, a horn section, backup vocalists, and auxiliary musicians. All the tracks recorded were written by the singer, with the exception of "I Don't Worry About a Thing", a song by Mose Allison
, which featured American pianist Ben Sidran
. Leonor Watling
performed vocals on the track "Toque de Queda"; Josemi Carmona is featured playing Spanish guitar on the song "Los Transeúntes". Drexler said, "In recent years I've realized that I sing better if I have an audience in front of me; I have learned to communicate better that way." The audience consisted of about 20 fans per session. This kept the musicians tense and alert; "the concentration was so great that it was perceived in the air, a silence so intense that you can hear it on the album." All the songs were available on the singer's official website prior to the album's release. The recording sessions were presented in the documentary La Trama Circular, directed by Ariel Hassan and Juan Aragonés. Drexler recorded the album with the working title of Mundo Abisal (Nether World), which refers to the deep sea and the inner world of people. He eventually settled on Amar la Trama (Loving the Plot) because he has a passion for the plot
, "the space between the beginning and end, to be completed, in which things happen." The album cover is an original work by Manuel Rodríguez Arnabal.
s and three percussionists
, which brings great vitality and achieves bright and expansive sounds. The lyrics are very personal, and choose meaning over sonority. The first track, "Tres Mil Millones de Latidos", is a song about existence that plays with the theme of identity, which is often present in Drexler's lyrics. "Noctiluca" is a gift to his son, since "having a child is the best experience to lose the fear of feelings." The inspiration for this song was a phosphorescent sea, lit by fireflies, that he observed at Cabo Polonio
, Uruguay.
, Judy Cantor-Navas noted that the lyrics were "poetic", and addressed familiar themes for the singer: fated encounters, global wanderings, the South American experience, and the universal wonder of everyday moments. She praised "Toque de Queda", since "Drexler returns to his Southern roots musically and thematically." Cantor commented that the first track, "Tres Mil Millones de Latidos", seems "fuzzy" since the arrangement diverts attention from Drexler's voice. Drexler received four nominations at the 11th Latin Grammy Awards
, including Best Singer-Songwriter Album
for Amar la Trama, Best Long Form Video
for La Trama Circular (shared with Ariel Hassan), and Record of the Year
and Song of the Year
for the single "Una Canción Me Trajo Hasta Aquí".
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
an recording artist Jorge Drexler
Jorge Drexler
Jorge Drexler is an Uruguayan musician and actor.In 2004 Drexler won wide acclaim after becoming the first Uruguayan ever to win an Academy Award...
. It was released by Warner Music on March 16, 2010, after a four-year gap since the release of his last album of original music. Drexler worked as co-producer, along with Matías Cella and Carles Campi Campón. The themes of the songs are his personal feelings inspired by journeys to Uruguay and Spain, his global wanderings, and the universal wonder of everyday moments.
The album received mostly positive reviews; critics commended Drexler's lyrics and his ability to perform live in front of a small audience during the recording sessions. The album entered the top five in Spain. The first single, "Una Canción Me Trajo Hasta Aquí
Una Canción Me Trajo Hasta Aquí
"Una Canción Me Trajo Hasta Aquí" is a song written and performed by Uruguayan recording artist Jorge Drexler. It was released on February 2010 by Warner Music as the first single from his album Amar la Trama. The track was produced by Matías Cella and co-produced by Drexler and Carles Campi Campón...
", also received praise. La Trama Circular, a DVD documentary about the recording sessions, is included on the standard edition of the album. On September 8, 2010, Amar la Trama received four nominations for the 11th Latin Grammy Awards
Latin Grammy Awards of 2010
The 11th Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held on November 11, 2010 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the third time the annual event had taken place at this location. The eligibility period for recordings to be nominated was July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Nominations...
.
Background
In 2005, Jorge Drexler became the first Uruguayan to win an Academy Award for Best Original SongAcademy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
, for his composition "Al Otro lado del Río
Al otro lado del río
"Al otro lado del río" is an Oscar winning song, written and performed by Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler for the film The Motorcycle Diaries...
" from the film The Motorcycle Diaries
The Motorcycle Diaries (film)
At the end of the film, after his sojourn at the leper colony, Guevara confirms his nascent egalitarian, anti-authority impulses, while making a birthday toast, which is also his first political speech. In it he evokes a pan-Latin American identity that transcends both the arbitrary boundaries of...
. The following year, Drexler recorded and released 12 Segundos de Oscuridad (Twelve Seconds of Darkness), an album that received a Grammy Award nomination
Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album
The Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album was awarded from 1984 to 2011. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1984 to 1991 the award was known as Best Latin Pop Performance*From 1992 to 1994 it was awarded as Best Latin Pop Album...
. In 2008, Cara B, a live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
that includes his greatest hits along with cover versions of songs written by Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
, and Kiko Veneno
Kiko Veneno
José María López Sanfeliu born in Figueres, Girona is a Spanish musician better known by his stage name Kiko Veneno-Biography:...
, was released. Cara B also received a Grammy nomination. The same year, Drexler wrote the score for the film The City of Your Final Destination
The City of Your Final Destination
The City of Your Final Destination is a novel by American writer Peter Cameron. Most of the story takes place in a small town in Uruguay. However, the Uruguay of the novel bears little relation to the geography or culture of the real country...
. During 2009, Drexler worked with Colombian performer Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...
on the Spanish language versions of her singles "She Wolf
She Wolf (song)
She Wolf is a song by Colombian singer–songwriter Shakira taken from her third English-language studio album of the same name. Shakira wrote and produced the track with John Hill, and Sam Endicott...
" and "Did it Again
Did It Again (Shakira song)
"Did It Again" is a song by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira from her sixth studio album She Wolf . The song was also released with a Spanish version, released mainly to Latin America and Spain, named "Lo Hecho Está Hecho" , as was done with "She Wolf" with Spanish version "Loba".The song's...
", and recorded Amar la Trama in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain. Drexler described the album as playful, without "the melancholy and anguish" of 12 Segundos.
Recording
Amar la Trama was recorded from November 1–4, 2009, at Cata Studios in Madrid, in a television studio in front of a small audience who were selected in an online contest. He chose this format to avoid the "coldness" of the recording studioRecording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
. Drexler was the lead vocalist and played guitar, and was joined by a band composed of additional guitarists, a rhythm section, a horn section, backup vocalists, and auxiliary musicians. All the tracks recorded were written by the singer, with the exception of "I Don't Worry About a Thing", a song by Mose Allison
Mose Allison
Mose John Allison, Jr. is an American jazz blues pianist and singer.-Biography:...
, which featured American pianist Ben Sidran
Ben Sidran
Ben Sidran is an American jazz and rock pianist, organist, vocalist and writer born in Chicago, noted for his work with the early Steve Miller Band.-Biography:...
. Leonor Watling
Leonor Watling
Leonor Elizabeth Ceballos Watling is an award-winning Spanish film actress and singer.-Early life:Watling was born in Madrid, Spain to a Spanish father and a British mother, and has three siblings, with whom she speaks English. Her father died when she was a teenager.When she was a child, she...
performed vocals on the track "Toque de Queda"; Josemi Carmona is featured playing Spanish guitar on the song "Los Transeúntes". Drexler said, "In recent years I've realized that I sing better if I have an audience in front of me; I have learned to communicate better that way." The audience consisted of about 20 fans per session. This kept the musicians tense and alert; "the concentration was so great that it was perceived in the air, a silence so intense that you can hear it on the album." All the songs were available on the singer's official website prior to the album's release. The recording sessions were presented in the documentary La Trama Circular, directed by Ariel Hassan and Juan Aragonés. Drexler recorded the album with the working title of Mundo Abisal (Nether World), which refers to the deep sea and the inner world of people. He eventually settled on Amar la Trama (Loving the Plot) because he has a passion for the plot
Plot device
A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
, "the space between the beginning and end, to be completed, in which things happen." The album cover is an original work by Manuel Rodríguez Arnabal.
Music and lyrics
On the album, Drexler was lyrically inspired by Madrid, where most of the songs were written. Drexler feels is a very optimistic album, since the title begins with the letter "a", the same as in "affection". The songs feature a completely different sound treatment, a departure from the "light electronica" of previous albums. Amar la Trama is the result of an artistic evolution originated with the recording of Cara B; "with nine musicians playing and recording live on the album, I became interested in making music as in the past." This new concept was explored with a trio of wind instrumentWind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
s and three percussionists
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, which brings great vitality and achieves bright and expansive sounds. The lyrics are very personal, and choose meaning over sonority. The first track, "Tres Mil Millones de Latidos", is a song about existence that plays with the theme of identity, which is often present in Drexler's lyrics. "Noctiluca" is a gift to his son, since "having a child is the best experience to lose the fear of feelings." The inspiration for this song was a phosphorescent sea, lit by fireflies, that he observed at Cabo Polonio
Cabo Polonio
Cabo Polonio is a caserío located in the eastern coast of Uruguay in the Rocha Department.Cabo Polonio has no roads leading to it and is located about 7 km from the main highway. It is accessible by walking through the dunes or by 4x4 vehicles...
, Uruguay.
Reception
The album received mostly positive reviews. Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic said it was "nothing short of tremendous" and "excellent". He praised Drexler's writing abilities and his courage in recording an album in front of a live audience; Birchmeier said that "Una Canción Me Trajo Hasta Aquí", "Mundo Abisal", and "La Trama y el Desenlace" were standouts worthy of special mention. Argentinian magazine, The Magazine, recognized Drexler as a "master" at designing memorable melodies, and maintaining a high literary level while writing lyrics. In her review for Billboard magazineBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, Judy Cantor-Navas noted that the lyrics were "poetic", and addressed familiar themes for the singer: fated encounters, global wanderings, the South American experience, and the universal wonder of everyday moments. She praised "Toque de Queda", since "Drexler returns to his Southern roots musically and thematically." Cantor commented that the first track, "Tres Mil Millones de Latidos", seems "fuzzy" since the arrangement diverts attention from Drexler's voice. Drexler received four nominations at the 11th Latin Grammy Awards
Latin Grammy Awards of 2010
The 11th Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held on November 11, 2010 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the third time the annual event had taken place at this location. The eligibility period for recordings to be nominated was July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Nominations...
, including Best Singer-Songwriter Album
Latin Grammy Award for Best Singer-Songwriter Album
The Latin Grammy Award for Best Singer-Songwriter Album is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the United States and internationally. The...
for Amar la Trama, Best Long Form Video
Latin Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video
The Latin Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video is given every year since the 7th Latin Grammy Awards ceremony. The award is given to the performer, director and producer of the video.- 2010s :- 2000s :...
for La Trama Circular (shared with Ariel Hassan), and Record of the Year
Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year
The Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the United States and internationally...
and Song of the Year
Latin Grammy Award for Song of the Year
The Latin Grammy Award for Song of the Year is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence, creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the United States and internationally...
for the single "Una Canción Me Trajo Hasta Aquí".
Track listing
Chart performance
The album debuted and peaked at number 5 on the Spanish Album Charts on March 21, 2010, the highest debut of the week. Amar la Trama spent an additional week in the top ten and 26 weeks in the top 100.| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Spanish Albums Chart PROMUSICAE Spanish Music Producers is a trade group representing the Spanish recording industry... |
5 |
Personnel
- Jorge Drexler – main performer, co-producer, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, lyricistLyricistA lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
, guitar - Matías Cella – producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, vocals - Carles Campi Campón – co-producer, autoharpAutoharpThe autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...
, glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, omnichordOmnichordThe Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument, introduced in 1981 and manufactured by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate, and buttons for major, minor, and diminished chords...
, guitar, vocals - Roc Albero – flugelhornFlugelhornThe flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
- Borja Barrueta – lap steel guitarLap steel guitarThe lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, an instrument derived from and similar to the guitar. The player changes pitch by pressing a metal or glass bar against the strings instead of by pressing strings against the fingerboard....
, drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, vocals - Josemi Carmona – spanish guitar
- Ben Sidran – organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, vocals - Josema Martín – marimbaMarimbaThe marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
, vocals - Sebastián Merlín – marimba, vocals
- Leo Sidran – marimba
- Ángela Cervantes – vocals
- Leonor Watling – vocals
- Xavi Lozano – vocals