Santi Lesca – Mente Viviente

Q&A with the universal mind

I met Santi one evening on the Atlantic coast of Mexico. Martine, a common Canadian friend, had invited me for a concert at this cool, unpretentious open air venue in Tulum. Despite being categorically drunk at the time, I seem to recall how the Caribbean night sky stood still in face of Santi’s combination of high-powered cumbia action and delicate, almost spiritual songwriting, taken yet to the next level by his sister Celestial’s live visuals.

Roughly one year later, we were thrilled to host the siblings for an arts residency at VIC, followed by a series of live shows around Portugal. We eventually ended up at the Waking Life festival, where the three of us would perform a semi-improvised audiovisual live show, and have an amazing —abrir tener reír entrar hablar correr mirar cerrar llamar bajar llevar volver dejar dormir pelear buscar usar caer trepar tocar y confundir— and enlightening time together.

Composer, sound designer and electronic luthier based in Buenos Aires, Santi is beyond any doubt a great mind, an eternal mind, a living mind. But I believe that his greatest super-power actually resides in the heart. Connected to art by a fractal labyrinth of bloodlines, his passion for music is outright ancestral.

More familiar with his electronic-cumbia-rock works, I was taken by surprise with Mente Viviente, and progressively fell in love with this EP. Sensibly merging elements from South American music, rock, exploratory electronica and orchestral music, the string arrangements continuously redefine the coloration of the record, propelling us towards cinematic territory. Resembling a Q&A with the universal mind, Santi’s lyrics seem to gently dissolve the boundaries between the romantic and the esoteric, generating vivid yet ethereal images that resonate throughout multiple dimensions.

Fortunately, this is but the first in a series of works that Santi will be presenting with us in the near future. May VIC NIC be the bone-dry woods through which his music shall burn free, ultimately brushing the jungle within the jungle deep inside our (h)ear(t)s.

Hugo Branco



Tracklist

1. Será 03:16
2. Simultaneidad 04:02
3. Solo Pregunto 02:52
4. Mirá Mirá 03:57


Single


Mirá Mirá

This video has a particular story. Although Irina Bianchet –Argentine violinist and filmmaker– was supposed to film and direct the video, Santi Lesca began to film her and the roles changed in a spontaneous game. Irina unexpectedly became the protagonist of the video and the direction and production was a collaboration between the two. Life is full of surprises


Credits

Mixed by Santi Lesca & Lucas Palmeira
Mastered by Lucas Palmeira
Artistic co-production by Maya Lesca
Cover Art by Celestial Brizuela
Linear notes by Hugo Branco