Fernando Perdomo 2026
Cloud 9
Taking to the stage in search of heavenly bliss, tireless explorer of the skies seizes the day and finds peace of mind.
One may safely assume that Fernando Perdomo planned this chapter of his celestial series even before “Clouds” began to gather, for there’s always an appeal in calling a track, and an entire album, “Cloud 9” – as the American artist’s hero George Harrison could suggest. Which is why this record’s title shifted from the plural form the rest of the instrumental saga used to a singular – and the platter per se became singular, in a different sense of the word, as well, when the idea arouse, a little while prior to its realization, to create a new set of tune live, in front of the audience. Such immediacy rather logically resulted in longer-than-usual pieces, because the composer had to come up with a melody and fully develop the numbers, but the results are nevertheless impressive.
From a titular epic onwards, gorgeous guitar passages float through the ether, as delicate strum and earth-splitting twang paint sparse lines over the understandably, yet deliberately, formless harmonic background to arrest the listener’s attention and surprise them with brief bursts of intricate notes – and not let go until “God” engages solid tempos and low tones to mold an Old-Testament menace and the promise of eternal existence. Stopping from time to time, mid-cut, to catch a breath, savor the applause and make a twist, Fern can risk breaking the spell – only the momentary magic is here to stay, the charm which “Transporter” propels to ecstatic experience via slow, caressing movements of Perdomo’s fingers across and along the strings that marry cathedral solemnity to chamber intimacy and expand aural space manifold, while also adding a spectral groove to the proceedings.
The audience won’t fail to get awestruck once “St. Peter’s Gate” involves the volume knob and delay to play around the dynamics and go for bell-like sonics to ring gently, if gloriously, whereas the otherwise hilarious, albeit sprawling, “What Is A Cloud?” – featuring the esteemed scientist Bradley Bobbs, who co-wrote it, as a singer-speaker – works in an incidental-music way. However, “The Weather Station” applies sound effects to the resonant plucking without trying to be emotional, leaving explicit feelings to the two bonuses, “Head In The Clouds” and “Keith’s Song” – that emerge from the studio, the former a Satiesque folk dance and the latter an acoustic in-memoriam serenade.
Monumentally delicate, “Cloud 9” is a bold test of a possibility to locate beauty on the spot.
****4/5
