Esteban – Enter The
Heart (DVD-Audio)
Music: B MLP
5.1: B+ DTS 5.1: B Dolby (2.0 only): B- Extras: C-
When I was a kid, Flamenco guitar was something in Pop
Culture that few heard about, and only actress/comedian Charro was a player who
did that anyone knew about. A
generation later, it is a staple of film soundtracks, TV ads, and the big wave
of Latino music that has hit since the 1990s.
Enter the guitarist Esteban, with Enter The Heart, a 10-track
collection of this music in its purest form, now in a High Definition sound
DVD-Audio no less.
The set, issued in 2001, seems to have been carefully
recorded. This is how good a
practically classical form like this can sound like, and that is really
good. The liner notes tell us Esteban has
studied with a master, and though we hear many myth stories that sound like
empty hype, it is believable after you hear how good the content is. Esteban himself is the album’s producer,
which helps explain why it works so well.
The MLP 5.1 sound is pretty good, bringing to mind another
DVD-Audio from DTS, Studio Voodoo (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and
the distinctive punchiness of its mix.
This may not be as strong, but it does make for a fine listen-though
courtesy of Robert Brock, Glen O’Hara and Mathew O’Hara. Even if this type of music is not what you
are into, the clarity and imaging offered is impressive. The DTS 5.1 mix is also good, but not with
the clarity of the MLP. The 2.0 Dolby
Stereo-only tracks do not do the musicians justice, and are just here for
cross-compatibility with all PCs and DVD players.
The extras are few, but include some video concert
footage, which is both intimate and in DTS.
The full screen, color, analog videotape does not fare as well, which
has been a problem on too many DVD-Audio titles and all the labels so far are
guilty of this. We have actually seen
simple music video clips that looked far worse, but why video transfers for
what little material is on these discs have to look so bad is one of the
reasons the format has had trouble catching on. For the extra money and an industry desperate to combat pirating,
this is a detail that is not as trivial as they think.
The liner notes also tell us his first teacher was
Vincente Gomez, who worked on the soundtracks of films like Blood & Sand
(1941 sound remake) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952). That was the first era of the Latin Lover
image as well. From that image, and
this music, Esteban more than faithfully continues many traditions that this
album lives up to.
- Nicholas Sheffo
