I've listened to these tracks several times now sort of randomly and out of order and some more times than others. I feel like there's a lot of really good guitar playing here, but also like the compositions at times feel a bit aimless.
Different tracks have different things backing up the core acoustic guitar playing and it varies how well it works.
There's a track where a man is singing that I did not enjoy all that much. His voice isn't very nice and I feel like I've heard much more nuanced singers than him. A squeaky female vocal sits in the background of another track and, again, not really doing it for me. I'm usually very on board with vocals in Spanish and Portugese music, but here, I'm sort of left happy that this album is mainly instrumental.
The extra instrumentation works a lot better though, with the strings in "Galicia" and the horns in "TravesÃa de la Comadre" working especially well.
As a guitar player, I feel like Agustin Carbonell is clearly gifted, but I have heard guitar players whose style I like better. He leans a little more towards the technical side than playing with feeling, in my opinion, but he is very skilled and there still is a good degree of nuance and dynamics to his performance.
I have heard flamenco and fado that moved me way more than this did, so I don't think it makes sense for me to give it a very high score.
I enjoy it, but I firmly believe that I have yet to hear anywhere near the best in this style.
The highlights for me were the tracks "Al Chacon", "Galicia" and particularly "TravesÃa de la Comadre".
The album works well as a whole, having enough variation in pace, style, feel and instrumentation that it doesn't get old.
I'll give it a solid 7/10.
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