Sudeste is a collaboration with my father, the Cuban singer songwriter José Aquiles Virelles, one of the distinctive creative voices to emerge from Santiago de Cuba. The title (Spanish for “southeast”) refers both to the city of Santiago, an essential cultural ground on the island, and to the region from which my paternal family descends. I grew up inside this music. My earliest performances were with my parents, playing my father’s songs. This project is, in many ways, a continuation of that early connection, but within a NY setting.
The album, recorded primarily in New York City in 2017 with additional sessions in Santiago, presents mostly original songs by José, whose voice is featured on seven of its ten tracks. In conceiving Sudeste, I was drawn to material that was rooted in the lineage of canción cubana. While his music spans a wide range of genres (from traditional bolero to son) this selection focuses on pieces where the lyrical dimension is central. My approach to these songs was guided by textures I associate with this particular lineage of music, while opening space for harmonic exploration. Having an expanded orchestral palette also allows me to have flexibilities as far as the idea of ensembles within ensembles.
Alongside the vocal works there are three instrumental pieces, created spontaneously in the studio as duets with guitarist Brandon Ross, whose sound is a defining presence throughout the album. Over the years, Brandon and I have developed a musical rapport through both our duo work and the collaborative group Phantom Station. I find his sound a most compelling source of inspiration.
Bassist Thomas Morgan brings a rare sensitivity to spontaneous composition. His playing grounds and envelops the music while continually opening new textural possibilities. The Solar String Quartet weaves in and out of the album’s sequence, contributing a shifting, modular fabric.
In an era of ever shortening attention spans, this music takes a different view of time. It unfolds slowly, with gradual, cumulative development. It is also the sound of time and place, a sound - story rooted in family, shaped at the crossroads of memory, lineage, and migration.
After a trilogy of albums for ECM (Mbókó, Antenna, Gnosis), I recorded the first installment of The Singer’s Grove in 2017 in Santiago de Cuba at the historic Siboney studios. It was there, as a child, that I first attended my father’s recording sessions, and where I would later first record myself. The ongoing project The Singer’s Grove explores pre Revolution era Santiago composers and traditional genres. Sudeste continues this broader inquiry, turning inward to document my own lineage through my father’s work.
A vocalist, guitarist, composer and producer José Aquiles has been a creative force for decades, carrying forward the trova lineage of Santiago. His work spans film, television, and theater, and includes collaborations with artists both in Cuba and abroad. For over thirty years, he also dedicated himself to documenting and preserving cultural projects across the island, particularly in the Oriente region.
Sudeste is built on very old secrets. It emerges from a communion with Cuba’s musical roots, and from the intergenerational transmission of culture through the practice of music. Both my father and my mother (a former flutist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente and an educator) shaped my path.
I am thankful to say that I am a musician today in large part because of that early environment.
I hope this album speaks to you.
David Virelles
This album was made possible with the support of The Shifting Foundation
David Virelles: acoustic piano, JUNO 6 synthesizer
José Aquiles Virelles: voice; steel string guitar on Nana de Amanda Sophia; nylon string guitar on Hoy
Brandon Ross: acoustic nylon string guitar, soprano guitar
Thomas Morgan: acoustic bass Daniel Hass: cello on Nana de Amanda Sophia
Solar String Quartet: Tomoko Omura (violin); Carolin Pook (violin); Allyson Clare (viola), Brian Sanders (cello)
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