If there’s one thing Colombian singer/songwriter Julián Mayorga knows how to do, it’s creating beautiful music. This has been apparent all throughout his discography, where he mainly mixed folk and electronic music, with a soft spot for atmosphere and textures. On his latest album, Atlas, we find Mayorga still making stunning music, but the focus has now shifted to new grounds. This is his interpretation of pop and rock.
On Atlas we still get those electronic elements, but they are distributed on the duration of the album. But his sound here is closer to a classic rock band formation, with special emphasis on the electric guitars and his gorgeous boyish, high-pitched voice, singing lovely lyrics full of images that sometimes feel nostalgic. Sometimes he just sings absurdist lyrics about wanting to be Charlie Brown, Demi Moore, Benny Hill, and Kasparov, over a 7/4 time signature, so he’s got a sense of humor. The tempos here are often slow, and there’s a recurring distorted guitar sound that gives the album an underlying running theme as well as a rockier edge. This might be his best work to date, and it is one compelling listen.