Sebastian Escofet

He’s got the same artistic stature as popular music’s biggest composers of all times. He received a musical education that was formal, classical & academic. His great songs are always perfect gems, an instrument of precise clockwork, by unexpected modulations, rhythmic phrasing, coloring on the musical arrangements, chosen instruments & the use of scenarios, atmospheres, dynamics & intonations. Nothing is left to chance.

Charly has composed albums as works in themselves, a collection of songs under the same sound & aesthetic, just like the great composers made symphonies, operas or concerts. Most of his masterpieces are arranged/ orchestrated with sounds from the rock world & have all the elements that any rich & cultivated music would need, with many levels of interpretation, & he never spared resources or arrangements when it came to achieving the expression of his aesthetic diversity.

Charly’s composing has always been permeable to every musical genre & all the new tendencies. He started with some acoustic folk & Elton John-style piano. Three years later he was making symphonic-progressive rock only to afterwards put together a foursome that did everything from Uruguayan Candombe beat, songs, disco music, super complex instrumental numbers, jazz-rock vibes & californication’s Steely Dan. Then in just one year, he embraced modern times, the latest technology & new wave. During the period that went from Parte de la religión to La hija de la lágrima he used his band as great rock orchestra.

Charly is an integral composer: his music, lyrics, arrangements, performances, production, concept, aesthetics & graphic design…it’s all part of the geopolitical “scenario belonging to Garcia the composer & his universes, possibilities & confrontations. Something particular about the evolution of his arrangements is that it used to be super synthetic, monophonic. Meticulously orchestrated. Now he works with a thicker paintbrush, he generates more textures, more roughness, he records & re-records constantly. Impurities, crooked loops, superposition of untidy layers, vocals nearly out of tune. There are albums where everything is balanced, simplicity, forcefulness, clarity. But we also have the case of Say No More which is governed by controlled chaos & unconcealed imperfections. Yet it’s clearly an artistic search & that makes it so valid.

He’s a prolific, boundary-breaking & wide-ranging composer, seeking change & to rise above himself artistically. He understands music & he feels it. He’s an observer of the musicality of things, be it due to his virtuous PERFECT PITCH EAR, be it due to his acute sense of observation in addition to a precise language. Every time he says “something”, it’s a triple.

He’s a unique case because throughout these 34 years he’s maintained change as a common factor. He was always loyal to his needs, not letting himself be caught by other people’s dogmas, not being affected by other people’s opinions, following his own inner voice & his own intuition, always knowing who he was & where he was going, following his own fashion, his own epoch. He’s an authentic composer, a leader, the only star in the sky. He’s the one who turns off the light