It is not an exaggeration to describe this double album, performed by the Danish guitarist Niklas Johansen, as a piece of poetry. Each of the 28 pieces illustrate the work of the Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez. His collection of prose poems Platero y Yo tells the story of the poet and his donkey, and the Andalusian area in which he grew up. This recording, however, doesn't feature any spoken word alongside the accompanying pieces of music written by the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo­Tedesco. They are obviously illustrative, and produce a sound world that is Southern European, with hints of flamenco, cascading arpeggios and percussive timbres conjuring up sounds of that terrain.
The exploration of the natural, rural landscape by Castelnuovo­Tedesco notates some of the sonorities that the guitar produces so well. In the opening 'Platero', for example, the apparent simplicity of folk language is featured sometimes working from the basic tuning open strings only. Or in 'Wayside Flower' the knocking on the guitar gives the wooden, honest timbres of earth and nature. Some of the colours work beautifully; the playfulness of 'White Butterflies' or the rain of 'April Idyll' connect the senses to the smell of petrichor, the Moorish architecture of the landscape and the sound of children playing freely.
Despite the free, characterful, sensitive composition and interpretation by Johansen, the music does sometimes feel like accompaniment - rather than individual pieces that stand up in their own right - and may work best in that role. The poetry in the accompanying booklet nevertheless combines with the music to make a delightful treat for the senses. Anne Templer***