1	higher ED The Top 26 Colleges for Latinos. read more...
2	SALSA FOR THE WORLD Competitive salsa dancing goes global at the Third Annual World Salsa Championship. read more...
3	LEARNING TO DREAM Dany Garcia Johnson’s Beacon Experience foundation is bringing an education within reach to children of low-income families. read more...
4	AMERICAN ME Introducing San Antonio’s Alameda Smithsonian, the first Hispanic-themed affiliate of the nation’s top museum. read more...
5	LEADING HEALTHCARE Meet Jose R. Sanchez, the man at the helm of Northern Manhattan Health Center, New York City’s largest multi-hospital network. read more...
6	ROLE PLAYER With so many parts to play, there’s nothing desperate about Housewives’ actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira. read more...
7	SONGS FROM THE HEART Oscar-winning music artist Jorge Drexler wrestles with restlessness, uncertainty and doubt on his latest release, 12 segundos de oscuridad. read more...

guided BY THE the DARK

An unusual source of inspiration sets the mood for Jorge Drexler’s much-anticipated new album.

A late night stroll on a deserted beach in his native Uruguay sparked the flow of ideas singer/songwriter Jorge Drexler needed to begin work on songs for his latest album. In the distance, perched on a bluff overlooking a desolate stretch of the tiny nation’s windblown Atlantic Ocean coast, the 126-year old Cabo Polonio lighthouse illuminated the darkness with a single beam of light. Transfixed, Drexler studied the rhythm of the beacon, calculating that every 12 seconds the structure’s golden ray would flash by. But it was the extended period of darkness, not the brief burst of light that captured his imagination. As the composer contemplated the symbolism of the pitch-black interlude, the title tune and overriding theme for his new album 12 segundos de oscuridad (12 Seconds of Darkness) were born.
“I liked the metaphor of the lighthouse,“ Drexler told Hispanic in a
recent interview from Madrid, where the 43-year-old musician has lived for the past 12 years. “It not only guides through the light, but also through the spaces between the light. What identifies one lighthouse from another is not actually [measured] by the light, but by the space between the two beams. You know what lighthouse you are looking at based on this interval. But you also get information sometimes from darkness—from a dark period in your life. ... And you get information from silence. You have things to learn from restlessness, uncertainty and doubt that are usually associated with the absence of light.”
Drexler has experienced his own share of restlessness, uncertainty and doubt in the past year. The widespread fame that came two years ago when he won an
Oscar for the best song from a film, El otro lado del rio from the movie The Motorcycle Diaries, and the success of his album Eco brought the heightened pressure associated with living up to the elevated expectations of fans and critics. The composer’s life became a blur of constant motion and countless hours spent on trans-Atlantic flights and in airports. Indeed, as his personal notes included in the 12 segundos de oscuridad reveal, a number of the album’s songs were composed while waiting for flights or while in transit. “That was my life,” he remembers. “I accepted that and started to write while I was on the move, or otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to write at all. During the past year, I’ve been traveling almost nonstop.”
His breakup with his wife of many years, singer/songwriter Ana Laan, also levied a heavy emotional toll. “Records always reflect your personal moment, and it has always been like this for me,” he commented in response to a question about the separation. “I’ve never made a record without having a direct emotional connection with it. I could write from the head only—perhaps even a beautiful song. But today, I’m not interested in writing just from the head—I need to write from the heart. I’m not interested in things that don’t move me emotionally. While that has the negative side effect of exposure, it’s a risk that I accept—exposing my feelings.”
Collaborating with two talented artists associated with Uruguay’s famed pop music ensemble the Bajofondo Tango Club, producer Juan Campodónico and arranger Luciano Supervielle, Drexler has crafted a worthy successor to Eco. The somewhat somber tone of 12 segundos de oscuridad is brightened by the optimistic timbre of Drexler’s soothing voice, the presence of guest Brazilian vocalists Maria Rita and Paulinho Moska, and sophisticated arrangements by Supervielle, who ingeniously incorporates the pulse of the lighthouse and its melancholy essence in his orchestrations. Drexler also sings in English for the first time on a recording, covering High and Dry, a 1994 work by Radiohead.
An album highlight is his Spanish- language version of Brazilian composer Arnaldo Antunes’ Disneylandia, a tune the Uruguayan describes as “a very strange song by a strange group.” He had heard the work in the early 1990s, long before he had ever accessed the Internet. “I had never heard the word ‘globalization,’ and Antunes was already singing about that,” Drexler says. “I actually read the lyrics before I heard the music, and I knew I wanted to sing it, no matter what the music was like.” Drexler’s son Pablo is featured on the complex and compelling track.
On works like Quien quiera que seas, Hermana duda and La infideldad en la era informática, Drexler demonstrates once again why he is regarded by many to be one of the world’s sharpest pop music wordsmiths, in any language. “I’m trying to explore new territory,” he says. “On my 1999 album Frontera, for instance, I set out to create a contemporary and regional sound. But on 12 segundos de oscuridad, it’s built around emotions, not sound. It has a lot to do with taking down fences that I would not have crossed until now.”