From Straits of Magellan, Rafael Cheuquelaf, a member of the duo Lluvia Ácida, presents us with his solo project, an interesting musical contribution in which he decided to dust off some treasured machines like the Moog Realistic M-1 synthesizer, in order to give the album a sufficiently characteristic sound and close a complex 2020 battered by the pandemic.

Almost like a meditation from a distant place, Rafael has captured the immensity of the Patagonian landscape, crossed by some antennas along with the hole in the ozone layer and its UV radiation. Musically, his album “Austronáutica” transports us to styles like Synthpop, Ambient, Dub and Synthwave, with solid basses, enigmatic melodies and multiple arpeggios, which evoke the influence of artists like Vangelis, Popol Vuh, Jean Michel Jarre and Pansonic, to name a few. We could imagine when we close our eyes that we are “Under the Milky Way (Bajo la Vía Láctea)” or that we hear the “Microplastics” coming through the speakers.

Without a doubt, this album will take us to other sonic latitudes that will please the ears.

Felipe Baradit Stevenson
(Concón, Chile. Febrero / February 2021)