Ángel Ontalva - Persian Courtyard (2024)

The origin of the material that is included in this album is in the time I was living in a historical building called Persian Courtyard in the city of Astrakhan in November and December 2023. The name comes from its construction by a Persian merchant in the nineteenth century, and its peculiar architecture and atmosphere keep this mysterious building as a microcosm in the center of the city.
In December 2023 there was a delay in the production of Seaorm's album "Nekyia", and to make the wait more enjoyable, and back home in Spain and still immersed in the mood of my days at the Persian Courtyard, I decided to write new music with that inspiration, and in twelve days the music that integrates most of this album emerged and it appeared in an embryonic way as a digital download album in January 2024.
Unlike in my previous works in which the guitar is the instrument I used to compose the music, in this album I used samples of the well-known Mellotron keyboard, which I thought matched well with the character of the work. The music went through different phases, including an arrangement for string quartet and guitar that we did epically live in Astrakhan in February, and of which the main role that the viola has on this album remained (Anna Anshakova plays regularly in the Orchestra of the Opera and Ballet Theater). In Spain we added a rhythm section with the collaboration of Avelino Saavedra, who has participated in some of my solo albums and with October Equus, and after including several more compositions, the album took its definitive form.
For the artwork of this album I have used collages that I have created from photographs that I took at the Persian courtyard and frames from old silent movies that I like, instead of the usual illustrations that I usually paint for my albums. This is, briefly, the story of this album.