“In a world where the sky always seems out of reach, a nameless traveler walks through an endless corridor of doors. Each door is a threshold, an instant where life is condensed into a choice.” – Roberto Musso (Lead singer)
The ever-original and philosophical Uruguayan band Cuarteto de Nos opens the doors to their new album, produced by Héctor Castillo and Eduardo Cabra, inviting us to take a tour. As with all of the Latin Grammy-winning band’s albums, this one is conceptual, with all the songs intertwined in one way or another.
“There is no map or master key. The traveler knows this, yet he still knocks, pushes, and sometimes retreats. There are moments when the corridor becomes a melting pot of mirages—distracting smokescreens, howling dogs to divert the gaze, and empty cages fluttering like broken promises. The world and its machinery of control demand that he look away, lose himself in trivialities, and forget the doors. But he resists, wearing a mask of inexpressiveness. His silence is his rebellion, and his opacity is a shield against those who want to decipher, possess, and reduce him.”
Eight very different songs connected by sometimes unclear doors, with a sound that takes us on different paths once again. They range from the funk of “Perro de Alcibíades” to the garage rock of “Cara de Nada” and “Puertas,” passing through the addictive “Ganaron los Malos.” There are also the string arrangements and melancholy of “En el Cuarto de Nico” and the emotional “Esplín,” which was chosen as the focus track for the album. Finally, there are the two fabulous sonic paintings in “El Astrónomo Que No Podía Ver el Cielo” and “Camello Patagónico,” which invite us to travel through the surreal and dreamlike universe of the traveler.
Musso adds: “Sometimes, the traveler finds refuge. A room where incense burns under the bed and a nameless poem sleeps under the pillow. There, fragility becomes sacred but never eternal among amethysts and incomplete mandalas. Melancholy, like a sharp pendulum, always returns, lodging in the crevices of the soul. There is no cure for that pain, only the hope of learning to live with it and glue the broken pieces back together with the patience of someone who knows strength isn’t invulnerability but persistence.”
With his pen, which has always been surprising, Roberto Musso, of El Cuarteto de Nos, takes us through emotions and reflections. He offers us a view of the world that, despite its obscurities, always manages to see the light and harbor the possibility of multiple paths, all of which are possible and correct for those who choose them.
He states, “The corridor is not kind. Some doors lead to quicksand, places where power rises alongside heavier weapons, and those who shout the loudest impose their truth. The traveler sees darkness win a thousand times over. In his bitterness, he discovers an uncomfortable truth: the victors and the vanquished are two sides of the same coin, reflections of a humanity that devours itself.”
The traveler lives with the anguish of freedom, knowing that choosing means risking getting lost. Movement is his only truth, and the corridor is a mosaic of fragments: an unseen sky, a cutting pendulum, a nonreflective face, and a burning piano under the sea. The traveler doesn’t know if any door will lead him to himself. Maybe it doesn’t matter. If salvation exists, it is not a place but the courage to cross the threshold and face the vertigo with open eyes.
The release of El Cuarteto de Nos’ new album was announced alongside the group’s latest international tour, which will visit eleven countries and begin on June 12 in Costa Rica.
