BY: DIGITAL WAX MEDIA STAFF
Producer, musician, and composer Milena Casado did not hold back when crafting her debut album Reflection of Another Self, out now through Candid Records.
The young artist went straight to the well of her own personal experiences for inspiration while putting together her album. This includes diving into her own feelings involving race, heritage, and other complex issues.
The sonically adventurous release brings along a number of wildly talented contributors for the ride, such as multi-instrumentalist Morgan Guerin, bassist Kanoa Mendenhall, drummer Jongkuk Kim, and pianist Lex Korten.
The ebb and flow of Reflection between song-based musical movement and improvisational approaches from the musicians involved invoke much of the lyrical content throughout the record, establishing a world within the record through which Casado is able to grapple with themes comprising the lyrical content of the offering.
Though Casado could have leveraged her talents to construct an accessible and standardized collection of music, she purposefully took the opposing path, channeling one of her biggest musical influences and one of the most highly regarded players of all time in the process.
”I was really trying to find these sounds that I had in my head,” she said. “ I hadn’t really heard yet, and see how I could mix them with an acoustic sound, drawing inspiration from Miles’ quintet with Wayne Shorter – especially the Miles Smiles LP.”
Reflection of Another Self is available now to purchase and to stream through all streaming platform services.
Photo: Milena Casado by Melissa Isabel Quinones
Digital Wax 