In a musical genre – synth-music – composed, at present, of reissues, records revived after decades of oblivion or false stories used to create founding myths based on imagetic narratives that sustain the music itself (Jürgen Müller and even Ursula Bonner), Molero emerged in 2020 with an album that arranged in the present a series of ideas that drank from that nostalgia, based on the harshness of the present. It was the first summer of the pandemic, “Ficciones Del Trópico” brought many landscapes that were an escape from an uncertain time, built with a Yamaha CS-60, Roland Space Echo RE-201 and a Moogerfooger Murf.

Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Molero has lived in Barcelona for several years. He left behind a successful career – the so-called normal life – to devote himself entirely to music. “Ficciones Del Trópico” exists with that obsession of someone who has spent years searching for a romantic sound idea and has managed to bring it to fruition. The starting point, however, has little romantic about it: a South American’s reading of the readings – and experiences – of Westerners in the Amazon / South America, from Anton Goering, Victor Segalen or Werner Herzog.

The songs reference birds, animals and landscapes that stimulate listening. You are never in the same place in “Ficciones Del Trópico”, you travel through fictions, places imagined by interpretations, which are now songs designed by Molero. Confusing? Not really, it is a reflection by someone intelligent and distant on ideas of exotica and new forms of tropicalism. In a world still so populated by Western interpretations, the materialization in sound of these ideas is refreshing. A rare case of wild synth-music mixed with a sweet and magical approach to places that literature, and other forms of fiction, have approached over the ages with ideas of colonialist utopian fascination. Molero’s music is a fresh place that seeks a new-new.

Opening, a place that is also new. Simão Bárcia’s guitar (Cíntia) will be a beginning of the way to go well packed to Molero’s rainforests. AS

Simão Bárcia is a Portuguese rock, jazz and improv guitarist living in Lisbon. He is part of Cíntia, a jazz/rock/electronic music band, that released their debut album “Sítio” late last year. He is also part of the indie rock band Biloba, who released their debut EP “Biloba” this year. As a solo artist, he plays mostly improvised music, based on songs from different musical universes, giving them a new twist.