Crisopa eschews solemn, melancholic, and instrumental streams of colorful sound. Lively and draped in emotively calm layers.
In late January 2017, Crisopa (aka Madrid-based Santiago Lizón) took a splinter break from n5MD and released Transhumante, an extended 7-track digital album. His previous two titles on n5MD were vibrant shoegaze-electronics etched with fuzzy melodic treasures that still echo to this day.
With Transhumante, the Crisopa sound prevails and remains intact. This time around, the emphasis is on vocal hues that are lightly sprinkled throughout. Early Syntaks-era landscapes are shed, yet Crisopa plunges knee deep into classical moods as noted on “I Am The Lord Of These Ruins.” Subdued, downbeat rhythms flicker by as faint memories. It’s easy to recognize Lizón’s harmony building as revealed on “Serene Option” where soft pitter-patter beats and a tranquilized chorus line are vocalized in the background. Transhumante sees the artists’ past merge into the now, the vocoder warmed-up and slightly de-tuned (ie. “Bird Song Reincarnation”)—where (Crisopa) is from, the birds sing a pretty song (Yasume pun intended.)
In all, Transhumante is a well crafted mini-album. Evolved (perhaps) as extensions to Biodance and A Lucid Dreamkit, Crisopa eschews solemn, melancholic, and instrumental streams of colorful sound. Lively and draped in emotively calm layers, the closing “Irradiating Nucleus” brings it all together in one tranquilized sonic collage.
Transhumante is available on Bandcamp.
