Fernando Perdomo 2026
Clouds 10
On reflection, tireless chaser of elusive beauty captures the gist of the existential void to give it a voice.
Minimalism is one of many manners in which Fernando Perdomo approaches his albums, applying it suitably sparsely, in an impressionist way, yet this installment of his year-long series of skygazing records will find the American artist concentrating on silence between the notes as much as on the actual sounds. More so, while he usually reaches for variety by playing around with a tone as much as a tune, the tenth chapter of “Clouds” is where Fern’s strings twang almost the same throughout all ten numbers, as if to let the listener focus on the platter’s matter – on the presence and absence thereof. The results are perhaps closer to avant-garde than anything Perdomo has done previously, but there’s supreme volatility at work, quite befitting the overall theme of his nebulous saga.
In order to get a full measure of what the master’s doing here one would have to wait till the very end and marvel at how the six-minute-plus “Nil” undermines its own epic potential via the careful placing of musical points in the titular nothingness, making each of those count – making each of those hang in the air for an instant to transform the folksy moment into solemn momentum. Still, to create such a mental effect an emotional start is required, and the resonant “Day Just Begun” presents a perfect image of awe born at the break of dawn – full of expectancy and the acceptance of things to come which “Watching the Sky Unfold” renders as a melody striving to become nature’s Morse code whose letters echo in the ether and gradually shift the tempo to keep the audience riveted to the speakers. And while “We Are Sunshine” relies on lower frequencies to shape earth-shattering, albeit never ear-splitting, just as slowly, yet with a sense of urgent joy, “Look At You, Look At Me” chooses to be reflective by running the mood gamut – running, rather than scaling – before “Summer Swelter” paints the drops of sweat by relying on a scant, though muscular, strum.
Reserved, and thus as punchy as love, “Free Fall Into Your Arms” speeds up and down and sees the guitar scope expand to a nigh-orchestral grandeur to portray a sensual rollercoaster everybody can relate to, whereas “Rhythm” appears as an exercise in Django-esque jazz to prepare the ground for “I’ll Never Forget You,” whose serenading begs for proper lyrics to go with its enchanting flow. So when “Pleased” exudes sweet fatigue to lead towards the finale, admiring “Clouds 10” may not seem like a challenge despite the album’s cerebral complexity. A milestone record for Fernando Perdomo, this platter shouldn’t get lost in his oeuvre.
*****
