Simön could fit perfectly into a genre called MPU – Uruguayan Popular Music in Spanish. But at the same time Diego González Herrer – the artist behind Simön – avoids this tag because sound dives in several styles.
In his melodies, we can notice deep influence of the Uruguayan composer Fernando Cabrera. The changes of time signature and playing with words are heritage Cabrera has left to an entire generation of musicians on Uruguay.
Contrary to the most of bands belonging to the MPU movement, Simön uses electric guitars to add intensity to his songs. And as a singer, he mixes Spanish and Portuguese to achieve – to me – something bigger. Here’s my point: You can use an acoustic guitar to express something you can’t express with an electric one. And on the other hand, the power you get with electric guitar is hard to produce in acoustic setting.
The same happens with languages. Each tongue has its pros and cons. For example, Spanish vocabulary is so much richer than English or Portuguese. But it’s more dry for singing, its consonants make a very harsh sound. So you can use different tongues for different kinds of feelings you want to express.
The song we have selected is the 4th track off Simön’s new album, “En Un Punto.” A beautiful and paceful song, “Esperar” (“Expect”) includes some elements similar to Radiohead ballads. The voice and the acoustic part makes one think immediately of “Exit Music (For a Film)”, that astonishing song part of one of the best albums of the 90’s.
But here it is my advice to the listener: Don’t stay on the surface. As soon as you start diving deeper into this album, you will begin to discover a very particular universe where styles are mixed together.
You can listen to “En Un Punto” LP in its entirety here or go to one of his gigs if you’re in Montevideo.
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