Joe Chindamo - Duende

2008 CD release.
     
“Duende” is a beautiful word. It is also difficult to define, which adds to its mystery and the elusive qualities of the human (or beyond human) traits the word endeavours to pin down. Coming from southern Spain, “Duende” has only recently migrated to English. Various dictionaries define it collectively as charm, magnetism, inspiration, magic, fire, a ghost, an evil spirit, a goblin, and a demon. My favourite definition is “the quality of passion and inspiration.”

Duende, like art itself, has faces that are both appealing and dangerous. The great Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca famously said, “All the arts are capable of Duende, but where it naturally creates most space, as in music, dance and spoken poetry, the living flesh is needed to interpret them, since they have forms that are born and die, perpetually, and raise
their contours above the precise present.”