On those occasions when we’re gifted the experience of something truly purposeful and moving in art and music, may we seize the opportunity entirely, to speak with truthful enthusiasm, passion, and promise. As such, I can whole-heartedly encourage you to spend some time, and I assure the value of, listening and exploring in full, The Price Of Salt.
A brand new original motion picture soundtrack, from the ever-diverse composer and multi-instrumentalist Javier Rodriguez, The Price Of Salt employs a fiercely versatile collection of soundscapes, from the tribal and ambient, to the evocative, euphoric and deep.
Its meaning is one of compelling realism, struggle, strength, and resilience. The details fascinate, and the music provides the perfect accompaniment to your consideration of it.
This is the story of Lac Rose – The Pink Lake – a rose-tinted body of water in Senegal, renowned for its hypersaline depths, yielding a salt so pure and abundant that its community has thrived beside it for centuries. The people here work hard, but only the men should mine the salt, a long-standing rule – its extraordinary saline content has been linked to complications in pregnancy for women.
However, as needs must in many communities and parts of the world, rules are often broken, and The Price Of Salt takes us through thoughts and scenes of witnessing a woman, seven months pregnant, hard at work – wading through the water, carrying a heavy basket of salt.
From The Price of Salt through Red Water, a certain acoustic urgency emerges, with multiple layers of rhythm and atmospheric tones alike, wholly enveloping the listener.
Then for The Salt, a natural simplicity occurs, an ethereal serenity that captivates and calms. And afterwards, the stripped-back vocal adlibs and freestyle solo instrumental notes of Another Day return us to the precise implications of its title. Life goes on, another day, another need to work and continue.
The contrast between these works means that it holds your attention beautifully throughout, but at the same time, the connections between them, the organic sounds, samples, movements and moods, is crucial to the overarching influences, inspirations, and intentions, of The Price Of Salt. There’s also a clever and occasionally eerie balancing of blissfulness and toxicity, moments of peace countered by those of rising darkness or fear. It’s all subtle, but powerful.
Finally, completing the soundtrack, Closing brings back the tribal vocal chants and hand rhythms from before, amidst a spacious, intimate and somewhat comforting performance, suggestive of unity and defiance all at once – with a structural complexity that’s fascinating, and very suddenly finished.
Javier Rodriguez has always engaged his audience, always impressed with creativity and skill alike, but my feelings about this latest project, suggest that he has truly excelled himself on the artistic storytelling and audio escapism front. The Price Of Salt is gripping and emotive as a soundtrack in itself, but also, it provides a more than worthy introduction to, and intrigue regarding, the original film it’s paired with.
Album out November 29th. Visit Javier Rodriguez’ Website for more information. Follow him on Instagram for updates.
