Dotze Temps

Lluís Gómez’ story is an improbable one. A voracious Spanish musical student from a young age, he quickly learned to play classical guitar, flute and electric bass. Already a professional musician, at 30 he started studying the violin and, later on, he fell in love with bluegrass while listening to Bill Keith & Jean Marie Redon’s Banjo Paris Session. So, he did what he knew best: picked up a new instrument, the five-string banjo, and went after the teachers who would help him master it. Although Gómez keeps to the banjo on his new album, Dotze Temps is a fine example of his ceaseless hunger for new sounds, starting off with the bluegrass joyfulness of ‘T’ho Vaig Dir!’, followed by the occasional flamenco hint in ‘Alma’ and ‘Anda, Jaleo’, the polka ‘Zrádný Banjo’, the delicate Catalan song ‘La Dama d’Aragó’, and the uncomplicated and pretty folk of ‘Tardes de Julio!’ While Dotze Temps is not a masterpiece likely to change anyone’s life, this is a great unpretentious set of tunes that never repeats itself. Well worth a listen.