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Today, with new song and video "El Paraguas" (Feat. Gabriel Garzón-Montano), Adrian Quesada offers the latest look into the opulent, tripped-out world of Boleros Psicodélicos. Out June 3rd on ATO Records, the new album from the Grammy-winning guitarist, producer and Black Pumas co-founder "promises to be one of 2022's most gorgeous releases" (Rolling Stone), presenting a deeply personal, yet widely communal tribute to the golden era of Latin American balada music. As Adrian Quesada juxtaposes tasteful guitar leads with the ominous sound of vintage organ, Gabriel Garzón-Montano delivers a crooning vocal performance of his own lyrics inspired in part by memories of his father, who used to make drawings of people holding umbrellas with rain underneath them. Similar to Los Pasteles Verdes' 1975 classic, "Esclavo y Amo," the first taste of balada that Quesada ever experienced, "El Paraguas" is a dramatic, baroque and slightly delirious song that leaves an indelible impression.
Listen to "El Paraguas" (Feat. Gabriel Garzón-Montano), and watch the official music video, directed by Diego Huacuja: HERE
"Gabriel Garzón-Montano is a rare talent, a musical chameleon that I'd always wanted to work with," says Adrian Quesada. "He floats beautifully on a somewhat dense instrumental and brings a unique poetic approach to the song."
Gabriel Garzón-Montano adds, "The umbrella is like a blindfold to the beauty and wonder of this world. It's a state of depression and limitation. It's stronger than tinted glasses. It's not outside my window, it's falling from a structure I uphold. It's a choice."
In addition to Colombian-American visionary Gabriel Garzón-Montano, Boleros Psicodélicos features Puerto Rican Grammy-winner iLe, who recently joined Adrian Quesada on lead single "Mentiras Con Cariño" (Feat. iLe), reimagining balada's soulful signatures in an original homage hailed as "timeless and cinematic" (NPR Music). The album also includes performances from Angelica Garcia, College Of Knowledge, Gaby Moreno, Girl Ultra, Jaron Marshall, Marc Ribot, Mireya Ramos, Money Mark, Natalia Clavier, Rudy De Anda and Tita.
Like "Mentiras Con Cariño" and "El Paraguas," Boleros Psicodélicos consists primarily of new collaborations and original Adrian Quesada compositions, as well as covers of La Lupe's "Puedes Decir De Mí," Jeanette's "El Muchacho De Los Ojos Tristes" and other balada staples. All twelve tracks were produced, engineered and mixed by Adrian Quesada, honoring and extending the influence of a personal obsession that he has cultivated over the past 20 years.
While Adrian Quesada grew up bilingual, living in the Texas/Mexico border city of Laredo, his lifelong admiration for balada music began in the early 2000s, when he encountered Los Pasteles Verdes on a local AM radio station, during a drive around his current home of Austin. Fast forward to 2020 and the COVID-19 lockdown sent Quesada deeper down a rabbit hole than ever before. As he uncovered more hidden gems from the movement's late 1960s, early 1970s renaissance, his sonic palette expanded from reverb-heavy guitar, grooves and organ to the harpsichords, bossa nova smoothness, art-pop instrumentation and orchestral arrangements that define balada's heartbroken romance and melodrama.
A master collaborator who has worked with the likes of Prince, Los Lobos and Wu-Tang's GZA, he compiled a list of vocalists to join him in penning an album-length love letter to the genre. Now, across Boleros Psicodélicos, the end result is "exquisitely vintage, fabulously confident, and expertly constructed" (KCRW), as the music "embodies the classical, powerful emotion that the golden era of boleros are known for" (Remezcla). Read more in a recent, in-depth interview with Rolling Stone, who call the album "a perfect recreation of a lost era, demonstrating that its source material has transcended the limitations of time."
Pre-Order Boleros Psicodélicos Here
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