Music Sin Fronteras
Put your earphones on and sit back with your eyes closed while you listen to the stunning piano notes that flow from Kristina Trejo’s upcoming album “Entre Tumbas y Flores”. They range from classical stylings to near-ragtime and a bit of pop – all done with a precision that emphasizes rather than detracts from the swirling emotions they carry .
The album – Between Tombs and Flowers in English – contains 10 songs that vary from carry-you-away classical pieces with a unique lilt like the opening track “Bella de Noche”, to semi-ragtime complete with street sounds in “Estuvimos” , to a gentle cradlesong in “Prison Lullabye”.
“Hasta Nunca” is deep and serious, but moves along in your muscles as well as your ears and mind. Then the album shifts to the light-fingered high keys in “In the Head” before plunging into the turbulent place were the storms and ocean mix. But Kristina pulls you back to earth in “La Rosa”, sailing among the flowers like a monarch butterfly.
“Leaves Fall Down” is the music of autumn, like a walk through a forest graveyard in October with your hands out, catching the leaves and marveling at their colors as they lay strewn on the tombs. “Song for M” carries you along with a soft rhythm overlaid with a conversation from the rest of the keyboard that sweeps you up in its hidden meaning.
The album finishes with two songs that are both beautiful and intriguing, “Tus Manos” and “Unknown”, both exquisite adventures though piano landscapes that change color and place as you follow them, but always return you to a place of peace.
The Mexican American pianist, born in Mexico City to a Mexican father and an American mother, grew up in a household filled with music, especially the piano, a history that is embedded in this album.
“My parents loved all kinds of music so I did do. My mother was a pianist and so was my grandmother, so the piano is in my blood,” she says when asked about her genre-crossing piano music. “ I listened to everything, even went to San Francisco to listen to psychedelic bands, but my mother was always playing classical piano, so my love is classical piano”, she muses.
She said there was always a piano and piano music in the house because her mother was also piano teacher with students coming and going. When she was a little child, her mother taught her to read music by putting on a classic recording and going through the sheet music with her fingers while it played , pointing out the notes so Kristina could read it. Now she combines her extraordinary talent and musical history together in albums that fit no category except beautiful
“I don’t know how to categorize my music, because I listened to so many different genres of music. When I am composing I am not thinking of the category, I of thinking of what I feel and how to put it into musical form. Sometimes there are elements from classical, jazz, pop. I have listened to all of them they are the different languages that I take from to compose. So I don’t know if my music is in a category, it’s just me.”
Entre Tumba y Flores is more than “just me”, it is the work of a rising talent with both the technical chops and the composing talent to produce something beautiful and unique – a trip to the stars. Look for it online soon. In he meantime, listen to her 2020 album on Spotify.
Patrick O’Heffernan
