Score: 8/10
To form a first impression on someone is easy (in fact, it's inevitable)—to form a positive first impression on someone is the tricky part. Now, most of an artist's would-be fanbase comes equipped with high speed internet connections and tend to be weary of new artists, probably due to the fact that they have spent countless hours clicking "deny" to bands on their MySpace friend request page. Due to the amount of musical tat now floating around within the online ether, who can blame them? The relationship between music and the internet tends to be positive, but there's also the rather annoying flipside: it's becoming increasingly hard for interesting, new artists to be heard, simply because there's a lot of awful sounding musicians, who, in order to steal the limelight, essentially spam music listeners online.
Thankfully, the effects of this seem to be purely short-term, as it hasn't stopped Bosques de mi Mente (Spanish for Forests of my Mind) from creating arguably one of the best self-produced records of 2007. The album in question is, Trenes de Juguete (Toy Trains), which surprisingly is the creator's first venture at writing an album of neo-classical compositions. The premise behind this astonishing work is one involving the memories of childhood, "and the little memories I keep through the routine, work, responsibilities and all the burdens of us." Quite. Described as "minimalist" by the sole composer behind the LP, I'd suggest this work contains more, for want of a better phrase, "meaty" tracks, when compared with other works in the genre such as Library Tapes. The instrumentation involved in this record is immense, although the artist's influences are mostly made up of piano masters such as Yann Tiersen and Terry Riley, the album isn't limited to piano only, instead it comprises of guitar, field recordings and an excellent use of audio samples.
The use of samples in Trenes de Juguete is equal to the level of skill executed by those who not only have more financial backing for their work, but also more experience. "Una tarde de otoño vista a través de la ventana" contains striking, yet almost silenced piano with samples borrowed from the Texas Radio Theatre Company. The end result is a heartbreaking composition, filled with turmoil but yet, there's still that keen sense of beauty that Bosques de mi Mente is somehow able to portray. Frankly, I haven't heard anything so interesting since Troubles' "furnace."
The weak spots of this album are rare, at times the melodies used are alike to Yann Tiersen's "Comptine D'un Autre Été: L'après Midi" but mistakes like this should be allowed when it comes to Trenes de Juguete. If every debut were this stark and this breathtaking then perhaps we should question this minor fault; however, until then, we should allow Bosques de mi Mente to emulate Tiersen for a while, there's so much material within the record that's unique, then the obvious admiration for the French composer can easily be forgiven.
With this debut completed, Bosques de mi Mente is already at work on a second album. Let's hope that this astounding young composer can offer up something that at least levels equal with the high standard Trenes de Juguete has set. For me, this album has already joined the ranks of Eluvium's An Accidental Memory In Case Of Death as an album that combines the best and the worst of human emotions through the lightest touch of a piano key. Hopefully Bosques de mi Mente doesn't stop here and continues to evolve his beautiful sound. Besides, if an album about childhood doesn't contain enough emotion for you, just imagine how one involving teenage life could sound.
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