In “Distancia”, Peruvian guitarist-composer Rodrigo Almonte and his ensemble take the listener on a musical journey charting different distances travelled, different directions taken, different cultures that nurtured Almonte’s way of composing and improvising, from classical music to contemporary jazz, passing through traditional Peruvian and Brazilian music. ‘Toribio’ is an Andean lament; ‘Noggin’ is a home-from-home of Afro Peruvian rhythms; ‘Utjawi’ is the word for home in the Aymara dialect from the Andes. ‘The Journey of the Lonely Cloud’ goes further afield, from Peru, through Brazil, into Ireland; and Ireland is evoked during the tender track, ‘In the Depth of Winter’. These locations are peppered with more abstract tributes such as OCD, reflecting on the rhythms created when walking while avoiding the cracks in the pavement, ‘Shorter Steps’, inspired by Wayne Shorter, and ‘Crown Heights’, about Almonte’s beloved niece.
