Since dropping his gem of a debut Prender El Alma, French-Ecuadorian artist Nicola Cruz has been traveling across the world, playing new music and collaborating with tons of global artists. He’s dropped a few EPs along the way (including the otherworldly Cantos de Visión and the Rodrigo Gallardo collab El Origen), but now, he’s ready for another full-fledged album.
That release, titled Siku, is expected in January 25th 2019—and today, Cruz is offering the very first preview of where his head is at with the new track “Siete.” Another lush example of Cruz’s intricate folktronica, “Siete” opens with the flourish of a sitar that then braids in and out of the entire track. Cruz shows off his quiet but masterful ability to take traditional instrumentation and sounds and bring them into the present day through subtle production choices, driven by a slow-brewing, staccato percussion.
“’Siete’ is a song that interprets the qualities of the number 7 in music,” he said of the new track. “I’ve always liked composing from a kind of ‘magic’ aspect, in this case this is the number of wisdom and consciousness, the day I was born, and a number I have seen repeat itself throughout my life. For me, it was important to record a sitar as a main instrument in the song.”
The track came together through a collaborative effort between Cruz and the Vicencios, a noted family of multi-instrumentalists who specialize in Andean sounds —Mauricio, Pablo and Julio Vicencio are responsible for the percussion, bansuri, and the sitar at the center of the song. Already, it shows Cruz starting to explore instruments we haven’t previously heard him experiment with, while keeping the intricate, layered production he’s known for in tact. Check out the full track below.
UPCOMING NICOLA CRUZ TOUR DATES
October 24 – The Stone House – Nevada City, CA
October 26 – The Great Northern – San Francisco, CA
October 27 – Belasco Theater (Minimal Effort) – Los Angeles, CA