Perhaps the most explorative of Phantom Limb’s imprints is Sun Language, a reissue label designed to “revive, reamplify, and rediscover” artists’ work. The first release, Canciónes Intactas, highlights golden pieces from Venezuelan synthesist Miguel Noya’s catalogue. Composed at a time of hyperinflation in his home nation, its uplifting breadth of sonic landscapes contain an antidotal energy. Electronic and organic sounds exist in unison, soaked in mist, rain, and foliage.
A veritable master in every sense of the word, Noya holds degrees in electronics, synthesis, and music from Berklee, MIT, and Simon Bolivar in his native Venezuela. An early adapter to “computer music”, Noya’s early 1980’s work in electronic synthesis set the stage for years of progression in the field of digital music production. Noya’s musicality is equally influential in the world of visual art, having composed scores for dance, theatre, film, and television. He has also received accolades all over the world for his multimedia collaborations with artists like Paul Godwin. Canciones Intactas then is a welcomed return to form from Noya, an artist whose talents extend well beyond music production.
One could see the LP serving as a pointed reminder of his immense gifts in the realm of modern classical in spite of his more recent focuses elsewhere. To that end, calling the ambient textures and voracious swells of ‘Tactil’ and the sprawling two-parter ‘Megabrain Focos’ gorgeous would be to deny its depth. Conversely, the relative light touch of mid-album tracks like ‘Inoculacion’ and ‘Contemplacion’ play off those book ends well, adding some levity to a collection that’s rich with dark symbolism. ‘Parsec’ splits the difference between the two with its sharp contrasting movements into and away from the light.
