by Louis Pelingen (@Ruke256)
Titanic, the collaborative project composed of avant-garde cellist Mabe Fratti and multi-instrumentalist I la Catolica, revels in free-wheeling compositions. Their 2023 debut, Vidrio, explores this characteristic through the duo’s melodic gestures. Jazzy instrumentation weaves and glides around in radiance, with Mabe Fratti’s harmonious vocals and cello fitting magnificently well, especially with I la Catolica’s melodic curiosity and intent. Allowing the music to dive into soothing waves and splashing gusto.
Yet on the opening stretch of the duo’s newest album, HAGEN, they take on an entire swerve. Improvisations can still be heard, yet emphasis on stark melodic expressions is the main mode for Titanic this time around. “Lagrima del sol” immediately leaps to the forefront, foreshadowing what is to come for the rest of the project. Mabe Fratti’s singing sounds resonant as ever, accompanied by spare guitars and violins that spark and shrill. It’s generally piercing, yet suddenly, it all slips to this 80s synthpop tune. Gated drums and shimmering synths bring a bright sheen, a surprise shift in mood that immediately differs from their debut.
Additional help from Daniel Lopatin, Nathan Salon, and Eli Keszler emphasizes the project’s strident tonal weight. “Gotera” is loaded with drums that blast in unison with the noisy guitars, clashing with Mabe Fratti’s assured voice and cello. “La Gallina degollada” is hemmed in with spiky percussion and rumbling guitars that scorch around firm vocal melodies, standing steadfast against these burly textures. Such heavy tones are contrasted with “Escarbo dimensiones” and “La trampa sale.” The former song’s front half is painted with nimble grooves before leading them onto the back half’s jam session, pulling all sorts of funky basslines and showy guitar progressions that are never short of captivating; the grand classical swell of the latter song is angelically sung, gradually transitioning into a joyous array of pianos and synth keys.
Titanic’s voracious approach to composing allows the theatrical swell to pour through, heightening the emotional grandiosity to the next level. No longer wandering around, they follow the beat of their own drum. “Te tragaste el chile” and “La Duena” present this with divine flair, bringing Mabe Fratti’s most breathtaking performances within the former’s gratifying guitar crescendos, and the latter’s dramatic strings and organs. It’s the moment of singing her entire heart and soul amidst surging backdrops, allowing the emotions to transcend into a vast space that’s worth inhabiting.
HAGEN is the project where Titanic directs their heartfelt musicality into something more firm and focused, never really abandoning that free-wheeling spirit, but utilizing it to elevate the feelings into a burnished extreme. All heard across weighty textures and strident performances, with just enough unpredictability to keep things playful. Unleashing emotions that are so immensely strong, that it can’t be helped but cherish its intensity for as long as possible.