Alvaro Rojas: Music for 22

Whether it was an unintentional or deliberate act, Alvaro Rojas' Music for 22 creates a perfect movie soundtrack. It is just that the film has yet to be made. His approach is to blend a string quartet both with his electric and resonator guitars, varying the scenarios and emotions as if he were scoring a film.

Rojas is a Canadian guitarist based in Vancouver B.C. with a diverse resume from pop, rock, and jazz, writing music for small and big bands, orchestras, and chamber ensembles. Here his core ensemble is a string quartet with Lucy Strauss on viola, Peggy Lee on cello, and violinists Josh Zubot and Meredith Bates. To this line-up he adds diverse flavors including synthesizers and various percussion instruments to create not just melodies, but cinematic cues.

The spare opening guitar of "Meditation Park" is accented with the slightest ambient wash. As the disc progresses, Rojas adds elements and emotions. The string quartet and Chris Gestrin's synths create a haunting tension with "Down Under," and a dreamlike quality "Wish" which opens to blue sky with the duets of Rojas and Neelamjit Dhillon's tabla. There is a trace of the exotic in this music. On "Tiger Dreams" and the title track, with its otherworldly sounds, Rojas conjures a wistful and sophisticated chamber sound. He can also get down, as he does with his resonator guitar on "Smothered in Tragedy" and the one vocal track, "Past Lives," which was co-written with vocalist Georgia Anne Muldrow. There is much more to the movie in your head that Rojas has created, but let's avoid any spoilers.