Back in 2017, when the trio Engine was invited to perform at Tricklock Company’s 17th Annual Revolutions International Theatre Festival and at ¡Globalquerque!, likely no one suspected that it was the beginning of a love affair between the band and New Mexico. Two years later, however, thanks to the Theater Department at UNM and Neal Copperman at AMP Concerts, the Franco-Argentine trio—Alejandro Tomás Rodriguez (vocals, acoustic guitar), Robin Gentien (vocals, electric guitar, cascas), and Pierre Lauth-Karson (vocals, harmonica, shaker)—has established a North American home base in Albuquerque. Last spring, their Encuentros Íntimos (Intimate Encounters) concert series here quickly developed a devoted (and SRO) audience and produced a live recording, Encuentros Íntimos: Unplugged in Albuquerque, and the band also recorded a studio album, Si viene la muerte, before taking off on a four-month European tour. This week, the band—now a sextet for its New Mexico appearances, with the addition of Terry Bluhm (bass), Jefferson Voorhees (drums), and Caro Acuña (percussion)—is launching another set of Encuentros Íntimos. This year’s edition includes four appearances in Santa Fe and four in Albuquerque. Anyone interested in an ecstatic musical experience should mark their calendars accordingly.

Making the new album
Following their summer tour, the three musicians, each on a different continent—Rodriguez in North America (teaching at UNM), Gentien in South America, and Lauth-Karson in Europe—spent several months birthing Si viene la muerte. Although the music was “already in the box,” says Gentien, there was still editing and mixing to be agreed upon and completed, as well as artwork and the various legal/publishing requirements. “It was a lot of work,” Gentien says. “People, me included, highly underestimate the quantity of work that there is from recording the songs in the studio to saying, ‘This is the album. Enjoy it.’ ”

So on Tuesdays, at 12:00 p.m. MT, 4:00 p.m. ART, and 8:00 p.m. CET, the three would get on the phone and hash out the details. “It was like having a girlfriend at a distance, but it was a trio,” says Gentien to everyone’s amusement.

Working with the three musicians was sound engineer Drake Hardin here in Albuquerque, who had done the recording. “We would send him an email with many notes, and he would go step by step, resolving everything,” says Rodriguez. Hardin’s dedication to the project went well beyond the time and compensation agreed upon, to the band’s everlasting gratitude. “He really embraced the project as his own project.”

In March, the album was finally completed, and the CDs made their way to New Mexico, where the band has reconvened for a spring residency. In the interim, though, the group signed a contract with Aurasky Records in France, which will be distributing the album, with a formal release scheduled for May. Here in New Mexico, where a release party opened the 2019 Revolutions Festival, the band will have CDs available for sale at their concerts, and those who are elsewhere can preorder it through the band’s bandcamp page.

The music
The album’s 10 tracks include five in Spanish and five in English. Half the tunes will be familiar to the band’s fans, such as “Latina,” “Rebotando,” and “Breathing Machine,” and there are five new songs, including the title track, the cosmic lullaby “Travelling Shoes” (with acknowledgment to Rev. Gary Davis and Clara Ward), and “Jilguerito.” The themes are existential; the mood is optimistic without being blind to the challenges the world faces politically, racially, and environmentally; and the grooves—cumbia, reggae, rock and roll, gospel, hip-hop—are deep and danceable.

“At the core of it are some essential questions for us,” says Rodriguez. “What is the meaning of our time in this world?” The band doesn’t look to answer the questions, but only to pose them, to make them a part of our internal and community conversations. “We are not saying how you have to live your life, but make sure whatever you do, you are alive,” he adds. “What do you need to be alive? Something essential in your life. What that is is our individual responsibility.”

Lauth-Karson notes that the title of the album was chosen because the song condenses the album’s meaning into a single phrase: “Si viene la muerte, que me encuentre vivo.” (“If death should come, may it find me alive.”) “It [is] a proposition, and each song [is] a possible answer,” he says.

The album offers an encouragement to the global community of people who share a commitment to living in a way that brings light. As “Breathing Machine” puts it: “We got the darkness, we are looking for the light.” “Jilguerito” takes an optimistic view of the possibilities: “La luz avanza implacable/Con lentos pasos con miles de pies.” (“The light advances relentlessly/With slow steps, with thousands of feet.”)

The New Mexico connection and concerts
Engine has been embraced by the New Mexico arts community, and its music has found a ready audience. “I feel like we arrived in the right moment in the right place,” says Rodriguez. He notes that while the sold-out concerts indicate an economic success, what’s more important is something behind that: “All the work that you are doing is received,” he says. “It gives you a lot of strength.”

The ground was well prepared to receive the seed that Engine planted. Lauth-Karson notes that the band’s material is half in Spanish and half in English, and at the same time, the songs leverage both Latin and non-Latin genres. “Somehow, here is one of the only places in the world that combines these two things so well,” he says. Also, the theatrical background and presentation of the trio finds a welcome in Albuquerque, which boasts a lively and edgy theater scene. Finally, there’s New Mexico’s simpático atmosphere. “There’s something here that’s very open,” Lauth-Karson says.

With Rodriguez again teaching at UNM, it was convenient for the band to reassemble here again this spring and present a new round of concerts. They had worked with a number of local artists last year, and they decided to absorb several into the band for this year’s series. So Rodriguez began rehearsing the three new members on the repertoire, recording the rehearsals, and sending the recordings to Gentien and Lauth-Karson, who would provide feedback. By the time those two got to Albuquerque in late February, a solid foundation had been laid down.

The fruits of all that work will appear beginning this coming week as the series in Santa Fe and Albuquerque get started. Once again, Engine will manifest the light, and it will no doubt be well received.

Engine
Encuentros Íntimos

Santa Fe
Mondays, March 18 through April 8
7:30 p.m. at Paradiso
903 Early St.

Albuquerque
Wednesdays, March 20 through April 10
7:30 p.m. at The Cooperage
7220 Lomas Blvd. NE

Tickets
$15 (advance), $20 (day of show)
plus service charges
Available at Hold My Ticket
For more information, visit AMP Concerts and the Engine website

© 2019 Mel Minter