Nicolas Jaar released no less than three albums and one EP during 2020, and while he reserved his more club-ready material for his Against All Logic alias, the two full-lengths credited to his own name, Cenizas and Telas, contain some of the most experimental work he's ever produced. Cenizas, issued in March, is particularly challenging at first, but rewards as the listener becomes more accustomed to its unique properties and atmospheres. Jaar recorded the album in self-imposed isolation as a sort of healing mission, and it ended up being perhaps a bit more of a purge than he intended. The 13 abstract compositions are often filled with eerie voices, funereal organs, and unsettling whirring and scraping noises of indeterminate origin. Jaar's reverb-cloaked voice nearly resembles Gregorian chanting at some points, and when he does sing discernable lyrics, they seem to reflect loneliness and desperation (he simply repeats "Say you're coming back" on the ominous opener "Vanish") or evoke images of destruction (the record's title translates to "ashes"). Tracks like "Agosto" and "Rubble" (which seems to incorporate the sound of scattered debris) are dark electro-acoustic jazz, with steely saxophones nervously bleating over distant keyboards and outfitted with audacious sound design. The longest cut, "Mud," is a sort of droning blues mantra, with Jaar howling over slow, lurching drums before a nearly harp-like keyboard solo takes over. "Hello, Chain" starts out sounding lost, confused, and pleading, but it unexpectedly goes into a gorgeous second part that is both haunting and hopeful. This relative sense of optimism is continued on "Faith Made of Silk," the album's final track, in which Jaar advises to "Look around, not ahead" over flittering, jazzy drums and muted synths. Curiously, the drums briefly mutate into skittering drum'n'bass breakbeats before everything goes silent, approximating the sensation of suddenly being jolted awake from a vivid dream. Moments like these keep the album intriguing, and they resonate more deeply with repeated listens.
- Paul Simpson - allmusic.com
