275: Travesía // Ni un minuto más de dolor
Ni un minuto más de dolor Travesía 1983, Ayuí (Bandcamp)
Travesía (trans. Crossing) was a Uruguayan folk pop trio formed in the early 1980s. Unusually for the time in Uruguay, the three women (Estela Magnone, Mariana Ingold, and Mayra Hugo) both sang and played their own instruments, and though they released only this single 1983 LP, they were much in demand as accompanists, lending their distinctive harmonies to some notable albums of the period. The trio met in an avant-garde-friendly Montevideo chamber choir, and their vocal style retains the technical precision they developed there, despite trading in the chamber for minimal arrangements of acoustic guitar, piano, flute, and harmonium.
Ni un minuto más de dolor (Not One More Minute of Pain) draws on a variety of influences, including Brazilian tropicália and the Beatles, but the results could often pass for a Cherry Red release or even something from the ‘00s indie pop revival. “Una canción gratuita” (“A Free Song”) has a bobbing piano figure and cutesy whistled outro that I could imagine the Shins working out, while the insistent chords and deconstructed arrangement of “Avalancha” faintly predict Spoon’s “The Way We Get By.” Just as Spoon’s unerring sense of rhythm allows them to strip their songs down to a sort of minimum viable arrangement and then work back up from there, the fact that Travesía’s harmonies easily carry their melodies a cappella frees them to use their instruments for elaboration rather than structure. This approach gives Ni un minuto más de dolor an ethereal quality, like ambling through a light mist.
Madrid’s Vampi Soul is a new reissue label to me, but between this one and Zulu’s self-titled (reviewed back in episode 239) I’ve been really enjoying the South American records they’ve unearthed. Working here alongside Uruguay’s Little Butterfly, they’ve done a great job with the sound and packaging, and I’ll have my eye out for more of their catalogue.
275/365


















