Kristina Trejo’s upcoming  album “Entre Tumbas y Flores” is a trip to the stars

Music Sin Fronteras

Put your earphones on and sit back with your eyes closed while you listen to the stunning piano notes that flow from Kristina Trejo’s upcoming  album “Entre Tumbas y Flores”.  They range from classical stylings to near-ragtime and a bit of pop – all done with a precision that emphasizes rather than detracts from the swirling emotions they carry .

The album – Between Tombs and Flowers in English –  contains  10 songs that vary from carry-you-away classical pieces with a unique lilt like the opening track  “Bella de Noche”, to  semi-ragtime complete with street sounds in “Estuvimos” , to a gentle cradlesong in “Prison Lullabye”.

“Hasta Nunca” is deep and serious, but moves along in your muscles as well as your ears and mind. Then  the album shifts to the light-fingered high keys in “In the Head” before plunging into the turbulent place where the storms and ocean mix. But Kristina  pulls you back to earth in “La Rosa”, sailing among the flowers like a monarch butterfly.

“Leaves Fall Down” is the music of autumn, like a walk through a forest graveyard  in October with your hands out, catching the leaves and marveling at their colors as they lay strewn on the tombs.  “Song for M” carries you along with a soft rhythm  overlaid with a conversation  from the rest of the keyboard that sweeps you up in its hidden meaning.

The album finishes with two songs that are both beautiful and intriguing, “Tus Manos” and “Unknown”,  both exquisite adventures though piano landscapes that change color and place as you follow them, but always return you to a place of peace.

The Mexican American pianist, born in Mexico City to a Mexican father and  an American mother, grew up in a household filled with music, especially the piano — a history that is embedded in this album.

“My parents loved  all kinds of music so did I My mother was a pianist and so was my grandmother, so the piano is in my blood,” she says when asked about her genre-crossing piano music. “ I listened to everything, even went to San Francisco to see psychedelic bands, but  my mother was always playing classical piano, so my love is classical piano”, she muses.

She said there was always a piano and piano music in the house because her mother was also  piano teacher with students coming and going. When she was a little child, her mother taught her to read music by putting on a classic recording and going through the sheet music with her fingers while it played , pointing out the notes so Kristina could read it.  Now she combines her extraordinary talent and musical history together in albums that fit no category except “beautiful”.

“I don’t know how to categorize my music because I listened to so many different  genres of music. When I am composing I am not thinking of the category, I  am thinking of what I feel and how to put it into musical form. Sometimes there are elements from classical, jazz, pop. I have listened to all of them –  they are the different languages that I take from to compose. So I don’t know if  my music is in a category, it’s  just me” she says.

Entre Tumba y Flores is more than “just me”, it is the work of a rising talent with both the technical chops and the composing skill to produce something beautiful and unique   –  a trip to the stars. Look for it online at Bandcamp and YouTube and soon on other platforms. In the meantime, listen to her 2020 album Parvada on Spotify.

Patrick O’Heffernan