Rising composer and violinist/violist Bryan Senti’s new album Manu is out now via Naïve Records!
Manu is the first crossover album for the classically trained Senti, a first-generation Cuban/Mexican- and Colombian-American, combining western neo-classical traditions with the Latin American folk music his parents grew up with.
Unique among classical releases, the parts of Manu were recorded individually, enabling the record to be released in Dolby Atmos as well as with a traditional audio mix. This unusual recording process gave engineer Francesco Donadello a unique opportunity to push the mixes, creating an illusion of three-dimensionality that plays on the psychedelic character of the music.
“Since my journey to write and record Manu began at the beginning of the pandemic, the final recording is in fact the sum of many individual instrumental recordings taking place over the course of a year which help create the record’s unique and surreal vibe,” explains Senti. “That said, I wanted to show in this video that these pieces are string chamber pieces at their essence and that they are playable. I’ve known Clarice Jensen and many members of ACME for over a decade and it felt like a nice homecoming to be able to work with them on this. I was also very fortunate to collaborate with the director Jared M. Royal who understood how the record blended the traditional with the modern and was able to transpose this idea to a cold winter day in upstate New York.”
Senti recently debuted the album tracks “Mantra” and “Manu” with videos directed by Jared M. Royal and featuring the American Contemporary Music Ensemble.
He also recently debuted the track “Humo”, alongside a video directed by Guggenheim Award winning experimental filmmaker Alexandra Cuesta. The video is excerpted from a visual album that Cuesta has created for the full record, due out this August. Senti explains “If Manu at its essence is about connecting to a memory of a memory, then this film is its visual meditation. Shot on 16mm film through the Andean highlands, Ecuadorian coast and parts of the Amazon, the idea was to recast images to feelings, to create a story where there was none, to will meaning. The production itself became a metaphor for such a Kantian journey, as shooting a proper film on 16mm through unpredictable and hard to reach locations is a test of will itself’.
Click here to stream Manu
Additionally, Senti will be performing in select U.S. cities with acclaimed pianist Hania Rani this summer, see below for a list of dates.
July 11—The Sun Rose—Los Angeles, CA
July 12—The Sun Rose—Los Angeles, CA
July 14—San Francisco, CA—The Chapel
July 17—New York, NY—Le Poisson Rouge