Memorias is clair-obscur’s birthday present for Astor Piazzolla, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2021.

A manera de memorias is the title of Argentinean author Natalio Gorin’s anthology of interviews with Astor Piazzolla from the 1990s. That book gave the quartet the idea to record this album, which provides the listener with comprehensive insights into Piazzolla’s musical environment. For the album Memorias, clair-obscur has taken Piazzolla’s six most important musical models and placed their works alongside his own in six musical tableaux.

The connections can be easy to spot; at other times, they are more subtle. Invariably, however, a novel, unexpected musical context allows us to hear Piazzolla’s music in a different way, with a fresh approach. Each of these musical tableaux is introduced by an original interview quote from the book A manera de memorias.