In our latest episode we take another trip down interview lane. This time our victims are Antonio Espinosa and Francisco Fernández of the Colombian folk/post-rock band Osuna y Leña. Our conversation touches upon such topics as the difference between this new project and their metal formation Cóndor, their use of the Spanish and Galician languages, the paradox of international recognition preceding local fame, their first live show, and the tragedy of having to bail on a Snoop Dogg concert. So start sippin’ on Gin & Juice and join La Raza in this latest episode of The Forest Passage.
From the Heathen Harvest review of Osuna y Leña – El sol de los venados:
This Colombian group’s first EP, a departure from their doom-metal project Condor, is a lilting collection of beautiful miniatures for guitar, voice, and keyboards. All are used to chiming and airy effect on this bright, unhurried, yet brief release billed (perhaps misleadingly) as ‘post-rock’. Despite moving from burly, meandering doom riffs to peaceful melodicism, there’s never any feeling that the group are restraining themselves or out of their comfort zone. Blissful and natural, this feels less like indulgent side-project experimentation and more like a true calling as Osuna y Leña‘s virtuosity is honest, intuitive, and refreshing.
Each song seems to drift into view, sketchy yet purposeful and cloud-like, shifting and morphing imperceptibly without losing its essential form. Take the barely there ‘Stellae Campus’, consisting of dreamily humming synths which zephyr along sweetly for about a minute, never so insubstantial as to be completely worthy of disregard nor robust enough to seem like actual music. While I’m warily reminded of Brian Eno‘s original ambient blueprint—something I’m not a fan of, personally (I prefer my music to be a bit more demanding in concept)—that total weightlessness is more a string to the band’s bow than a dominant trait.