Dino Saluzzi - El Valle de la Infancia (2014)

El Valle de la Infancia finds the great bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi at the top of his form on an achingly beautiful album with his 'family' of musicians - his brother, reeds player Felix 'Cuchara' Saluzzi, his guitarist son José Maria Saluzzi, and Felix's son Matias Saluzzi on bass - and with friends, guitarist Colacho Brizuela and percussionist Quintino Cinalli. Recorded in Buenos Aires, their enjoyment in making music together is palpable. This is Argentinian popular music at its most potent.

Dino Saluzzi returns to his roots, to retrieve, unchanged yet renewed, the music of his homeland in its essential brilliance. As says Leopoldo 'Teuco' Castilla in his liner notes: "He goes in search of melody and brings it to life; when he sings, the music feels boundless, more than music, a true evocation of people and place. The bandoneon breathes the air of burning sugar cane in the Siancas valley in Salta, Argentina; and the saxophone is the deepest cry."

"The music captures the natural world of its origins: North Argentina, ablaze with mourning, despairing with joy. Nature, in spirit and in its most ethereal form, brought to life in the hands of this creator. And also the prayers offered up to those Virgins of the high mountains, the Virgin of Urcupiña amongst others, by the people of that region and their Bolivian neighbours. The work is alive with different genres: from dances such as zamba to carnavalito to chacarera. Here, too, is the music of Buenos Aires. Saluzzi spins the hidden web secretly beating in the tango, delves deep into the milonga, wounded yet strong, intrinsic yet expressive."

The group last appeared on ECM on the 2006 recording, Juan Condori.