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Ilusión y Verdad

Flute And Guitar Works By Eduardo Martín

Fiorella Camilleri flute
Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas guitar

Release Date: March 11, 2022
Catalog #: AR0017
Format: Digital & Physical
21st Century
Chamber
Flute
Guitar

ILUSIÓN Y VERDAD from Cuban guitarist Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas and Maltese flutist Fiorella Camilleri is a vibrant collection of works for guitar and flute. The music incorporates not only the infectious Afro-Cuban rhythms for which Cárdenas is known, but also features elements of blues and rock, among others. Works like Hasta Alicia Baila and Sones Y Flores are especially inspired by the diverse history of Cuban music and its relationship to jazz and western classical music. Throughout the album, Cárdenas and Camilleri exhibit their ability to transcend genre limitations with ease, creating new and fascinating cross-cultural musical connections. Even still, Cárdenas’s performances reveal him to be a proud ambassador for his country’s music. Lauded by Classic FM Magazine as a “true pioneer,” Cárdenas upholds this title with ILUSIÓN Y VERDAD.

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“it's about good music that will always be good music.”

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Contorno Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 3:50
02 Suite Habana: Lugares Comunes Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 1:18
03 Suite Habana: Amaneceres Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 3:01
04 Suite Habana: Laberinto Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 2:06
05 Suite Habana: Sol y sombras Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 1:34
06 Mirándote Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 3:14
07 En Cinco Líneas: Anunciación Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 2:59
08 En Cinco Líneas: Iluminado Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 3:30
09 En Cinco Líneas: Profecía del agua y el viento Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 3:03
10 En Cinco Líneas: La ausencia Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 3:07
11 En Cinco Líneas: Ilusión y verdad Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 2:29
12 Para Soñar Contigo Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 3:28
13 Hasta Alicia Baila Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 5:05
14 Canción De Octubre Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 2:02
15 Sones Y Flores Eduardo Martín, Walfrido Dominguez Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 4:24
16 Trazos En El Aire Eduardo Martín Fiorella Camilleri, flute; Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, guitar 2:20

Musical Production, Executive production, Editing Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas
Recorded July 29 – August 1, 2019 at Lito’s Place in Floriana, Malta
Session Engineer, Mixing, and Mastering Manolito Galea, Lito’s Place

Ahmed Dickinson plays on a 1998 Stephen Hill guitar
Fiorella Camilleri plays on a 14K Muramatsu flute

Track copyright credits
1, 7 – 11, 16 © Cubafilin Records Ltd
2 – 5 © Les Production D’Oz
6 © Editions Henry Lemoine
12 © Eduardo Martín
13 © Tuscany Publications
14 © GSP
15 © Eduardo Martín / Walfrido Domínguez / Cubafilin Records Ltd

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Jacob Smith

VP, Audio Production Jeff LeRoy
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
Mastering Jan Košulič

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Sara Warner

Artist Information

Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas

Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas

Guitarist

Described as “a true pioneer” (Classic FM Magazine), award-winning London-based Cuban guitarist, Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, is one of the finest performers of the Cuban classical guitar school.

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FIORELLA CAMILLERI

Fiorella Camilleri

Flutist

Maltese-born flutist Fiorella Camilleri started playing the flute at age 14. Since then she has been an active chamber musician with different ensembles playing repertoire ranging from the classical to the contemporary, performing in Italy, Malta, and Japan respectively. Her latest chamber music achievement led her to Shizuoka and Tokyo, where she led a research project supported by the Malta Arts Fund. This project, which took place in 2017, involved merging Maltese and Japanese traditional music. She explores the subject of international cultural diplomacy through chamber music and research based projects.

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Notes

Contour (2010) is a short piece in two movements dedicated to Cuban flute virtuoso Niurka Gonzales.

Havana Suite was originally written for guitar and flute. Its style calls to mind new age sonorities. It is one of Eduardo’s most performed works. “Laberinto” combines influences from tango and rock. “Sol y sombras” has more accessible South American rhythms like bossa or samba.

This piece was originally written as a short solo guitar piece, included in a cycle titled Álbum de la Inocencia (Album from Innocence) and is dedicated to Eduardo’s son Dario. This lullaby recreates the thoughts and feelings, the fear, endearment, pride, and hopes that a father experiences when watching his toddler playing outside in the garden.

En Cinco Lineas is a suite originally composed for solo guitar and dedicated to five friends who are all prominent guitarists.

“Annunciation” is the first in this series and was written for Iliana Matos with complete freedom and great enthusiasm, because Iliana can take on any musical or technical challenge without difficulty. There are melodic rhythms and turns in the piece that transport us quickly to South America, but not to a single country in this vast region—rather to an area rich in sound transculturation.

“Illuminated,” is a piece with Cuban flavor featuring predominantly the syncopations of traditional “son”. The structure is simple; two parts are repeated as happens in most of the dances in any baroque suite or folk piece. It is dedicated to José Ignacio López, a man always touched by the muses, hence his title.

“Prophecy of the Water and the Wind” is related to the blues, but does not stop being meditative despite its impromptu style. In the first part, the rigorous pulse allows silences to acquire their true expressive meaning. The sound becomes more intense as the piece progresses. It is dedicated to Francisco Gamallo, a special friend who never ceases to stimulate Eduardo’s musical thoughts and to challenge his will.

“The Absence” is a romantic song, very appropriate to the musical sensibility of Rosa Matos for whom it was composed. It contains certain melodic twists and harmonics typical of the bolero, although this pulse is much more flexible.

“Illusion and Truth” is based on Afro-Cuban rhythms, essentially to some “batá” drums cells. Certain rock influences are always present. This piece is dedicated to prominent guitarist Jorge Luís Zamora. The music possesses a lively and cheerful character.

This piece is a lullaby written at the end of 2004 and is dedicated to Catalina D’Onia, the daughter of close family friends.

This is a work based on an urban musical genre that originated among black working class Cubans in the late 19th century. Traditionally a vocal piece accompanied by discarded furniture, glass bottles, and cutlery, the most popular variation can include several percussion instruments such as congas, claves, chekeré, and cowbells. This piece is dedicated to a very prominent and refined Cuban lady who, for a while, only favored western classical music and didn’t appreciate the aesthetic wonders of these intricate Afro-Cuban rhythms.

This piece belongs to a popular suite for solo guitar titled Canciones del Calendario where Martín describes different internal shifts in moods related to the passing of the seasons. This little gem is one of the very first pieces written by Martín and it is easy to notice his inclination for new age sounds.

Sones Y Flores recreates the evolution of Cuba’s most famous musical genre, the son montuno, starting with its basic rhythmic patterns and sonorities from when it was invented at the end of 19th century. It quickly develops into the sounds of its golden era, between the 1920s and 1940s. Jazz, pop, and rock sounds are added to the mix.

Trazos En El Aire is dedicated to Spanish composer and flutist Jesús Gonzales.