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FORMAS AL DESAPARECER
Martina Liviero
Label: Hilo Records
Released: 2026
Duration: 00:36:44
Views: 6
Tracks
Primeras Luces Florecer Dónde Hilo Azul Un Intersticio Valsa Será La Noche Una Semilla Refugio
Personnel
Martina Liviero
vocalsRafael Martini
pianoJoana Queiroz
clarinet, bass
Martin Nevin
bassAri Chersky
guitar
Will Graefe
guitar
Julian Shore
pianoAlé Fonseca
synthesizerAlbum Description
Formas al Desaparecer is a collection of nine original compositions, weaving together songs with original lyrics in Spanish and instrumental pieces. The music, featuring an ensemble of vocals, guitars, clarinet, piano, synths, organ, bass and marimbas, was written and arranged by Liviero, with production by Brazilian composer Rafael Martini. Liviero’s detailed songs and compositions explore her unique approach to timbre and instrumentation, blending the artisanal warmth of acoustic folk with delicate layers of synths, tape delays, and sonic manipulations. On Formas al Desaparecer, Liviero expands the boundaries of Argentine songwriting, blending experimental South American folk with chamber music into a sonic universe that encourages the listener to engage deeply and intimately.
The album, recorded between Belo Horizonte, Brazil and New York City, features performances by Martina Liviero, Rafael Martini, Joana Queiroz, Will Graefe, Martin Nevin, Julian Shore, and Ari Chersky.
Written between 2020 and 2024 and drawing inspiration from the poetry of Louise Glück, Formas al Desaparecer evokes the act of disappearing into one’s work and dissolving into the perceptual world. In this way, Liviero’s compositions foreground tactile atmospheres over constantly shifting harmonies, while the lyrics center on sensorial imagery and inner landscapes. Fragments and impressions replace linear narratives, as the nature of time and memory is explored.
“This album captures my inner tension between songwriter and composer. To me, they’re two sides of the same coin, each shaping and informing the other,” reflects Liviero. Her compositions serve as intricate vehicles for lyrical explorations for the passing of time, transformation, and the vital force of love and creation. Each gesture, melody, and instrumental grouping is shaped with meticulous attention to detail, as the music drifts in and out of a cloudy haze, like a half-forgotten dream.
Much of the album was recorded at New Doors Studio in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. “I chose to record there because the music of Minas Gerais has been deeply influential to me,” says Liviero. “Belo Horizonte, with its musical culture shaped by Clube da Esquina and Música Popular Mineira, has had a profound impact on my work. There’s a long tradition of songwriters, musicians, and poets from the ’70s who came together to make amazing music—artists like Milton Nascimento, Tavinho Moura, Beto Guedes, and Lô Borges, to name a few.” The use of marimbas created by Marco Antônio Guimarães helps capture the distinctive sound of Minas Gerais, where inventive pitched percussion plays a central role in its musical identity.
Album opener “Primeras Luces” serves as a palate cleanser for the listener. “I wanted a sonic way to enter the album’s landscape. We move through a world saturated with noise, and I wanted to give the listener space for quiet and stillness,” says Liviero. The piece draws on compositional material from across the record and is built from every non-acoustic timbre used throughout. The circular nature of Liviero’s compositional language is already present here, as the textures and timbres introduced in the opening reappear in the album’s final moments.
With the receding swell, we enter the shifting world of “Florecer,” with its hypnotic guitar riff decorated by light marimba pulses and electric guitar textures, evoking the drifting, spacious guitars from Joni Mitchell’s Hejira. Liviero’s intimate voice floats overtop these interwoven textures, lyrics exploring change and gradual awakening. At the climax, Joana Queiroz’s clarinet rises over shifting harmonies, unfolding into a duet between Martin Nevin’s crystal-clear upright bass and a lyrical bass clarinet passage, accented by low-end piano from Julian Shore.
“Where do the traces we leave behind go—the forgotten details of our memories? Does everything that fades remain somehow imprinted, still present within us?” This becomes the central question of “Dónde.” Its seemingly simple binary structure conceals a deeper complexity; as Liviero explains, “The song begins with a question, and I wanted to carry that sense of ambiguity into both the lyrics and the form. I wanted it to feel a little uneven and unexpected, but still unfold in a way that feels organic.”
“Hilo Azul” is an intricate mosaic tapestry of interlocking musical ideas. Liviero’s voice flows naturally, suspended over chromatic harmonies. Guitars and marimbas take on a harp-like role, with lush, resonant chords and plucked counterlines, while her voice weaves the elements together like a thread. She sings with heartfelt intimacy, “Mi voz se irá, encontrando un refugio, otra manera de decir adiós.” The lyrics frame writing and singing as gestures of farewell and refuge.
“Un Intersticio,” a four-part clarinet and bass clarinet interlude, serves as a second palate cleanser, opening the B side on vinyl and foreshadowing the album’s darker, more nostalgic turn. Queiroz’s vibrant tone and nuanced articulation reveal a sparse, inward emotional landscape.
The interlude dovetails into an instrumental dialogue between Queiroz’s clarinets and Liviero’s guitar. “Valsa” was written as a homage to some of Liviero’s favorite South American guitarists. Here, she inverts the expectation of a guitar feature as a pyrotechnic showcase, instead offering an intimate exploration of color. As she explains, “I didn’t want to project outwards; instead, I wanted the listener to come to the guitar. Some of my favorite guitar players are like that, and this piece feels more like an invitation inward, rather than an outward expansion.”
Themes of loss and heartbreak shape the melancholic world of “Será La Noche.” The song carries a subtle Piazzolla influence in its dark chromatic harmonies, echoed in the lyrical bass clarinet counterlines. It unfolds within a nocturnal, hazy atmosphere. Liviero’s vocals are breath-inflected and restrained, yet convey a quiet longing for lost love.
“Una Semilla” is the album’s most stripped-down composition. It features Liviero’s guitar, accompanied by a subtle atmospheric texture. “I imagined the core of the album to be just a nylon-string guitar, on its own, surrounded by space.” Once again, Liviero invites the listener closer, to sit in stillness before the final song.
The album closes with “Refugio,” a song of wistful, dreamlike beauty. Liviero sings, “Palabras que muriéndose en el viento, nos cantan al dolor,” with an unforced fragility, her phrasing gently tracing the melody. The song carries a reminiscence of Luis Alberto Spinetta’s angular yet lyrical melodic language over harmonies in constant motion. After Liviero sings “sin volver,” the song settles into a vamp with fragmented textures recalling the album’s opening track. The album is, in itself, a circular journey—an invitation for the listener to fade into experience in order to awaken.
“[…]
the self disappearing into it or inseparable from it,
somehow suspended, floating, its needs
fully exposed, awakened, fully alive—”
—Louise Glück, The Sensual World
Album uploaded by Jan Esbra
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