Bosques de mi Mente, or Forests of my Mind, is the solo project of a Spaniard who goes by the name Nacho. Since initiating the project in 2007 with Trenes de Juguete, Nacho has released three more albums, the most recent being Inocencia. Like the prior records, Inocencia is available as a free download and is licensed under Creative Commons, two things I like very much. Though there is a variety of instrumentation present, primarily Bosques revolves around simple piano melodies that build on repetition and two-hand interplay. It's nothing original, but due to the album's simplicity, Nacho manages to create striking little audio-images that are quite beautiful at times.

Nacho’s moniker was aptly chosen. Clocking in at seventy-two minutes and twenty-seven songs, many of which are between forty seconds and two-minutes, Inocencia can really feel like wandering through the forests of someone’s mind. The album revolves around building piano riffs over waves of sound, generally to a pleasing effect. Toy pianos, mellotron, guitar, flutes, Hammond organ, xylophone, melodica, strings, and samples make appearances, but the piano is clearly on center stage. Some tracks deviate slightly, showcasing the toy piano or another instrument, but primarily what we have here is a solo piano album with overdubs and ambient background texture. For the most part, the songs work well out of context. That is to say, many of these tracks begin to lose their personality when listened through straight in a row. However, when mixed with other artists, the tracks can shine more effectively.

This is not to criticize Nacho; Inocencia is a coherent release, and I almost always appreciate more music than less. The record flows effectively and is worth a listen, but  it is certainly on the long side. The songs deserve individual attention, and some tracks will get lost when the album is listened to in one sitting, overwhelmed by the more ostentatious songs. Perhaps this is because of the variety and brevity of tracks - each listen will undoubtedly reveal something missed. “Todos los hombres son subditos,” for instance, stands in stark contrast and somehow escaped me, though it is only fifty-two seconds long. It sounds like an old video game soundtrack looped with additional field recordings.

The first and last tracks are the longest, around five minutes each, and act as suitable bookends in that they are probably the most unusual of the bunch. The vocal accents on the first track bother me for some reason, though there is really nothing wrong with them. They just seem a bit whiny and out of place, perhaps even superfluous. Luckily, vocals don’t appear prominently on much else of the record. The songs that do feature vocals (in English, oddly) are the weakest, such as “501,622,731 Estrellas." This is my major criticism of the album. Additionally, this song and some of the other longer pieces have odd transitions that don’t quite justify the piece being called a "song." Rather, they seem like shorter pieces arbitrarily brought together.

Inocencia can be very pleasant to listen to at times. Some tracks, particularly the shorter ones, may surprise the listener when heard out of the context of the album, but as a whole, it is a bit too long. Overall, Bosques de mi Mente is enjoyable but fails to really make a lasting impression. Only two years on the scene, I hope Nacho continues to progress and release music, though perhaps he will spend more time on the writing and really distilling what is essential to present to the world in the future. 

-Joseph Sannicandro