Huma – Eva [Hedonic Reversal]

Hedonic Reversal is a label based in Barcelona that already amazed us this past summer with the release of ‘Ascend’, LP of the Belgian duo Orphan Swords, and that returns again, but now with a debut album by Huma, head of this project. Orphan Swords is a consolidated band and in addition to Ascend’s great sound contribution, what surprised us the most was that this reference was published in such a humble but at the same time so prepared label. 

After the great quality we were offered with this work of the Belgians, Huma returns again to Hedonic Reversal with another great release, the third of his career and the first in extensive format, all published on this label, which shows the involvement of Andres Satué (Huma) in his project.

‘Eva’ is a conceptual album that symbolizes the development of the human being with the great changes of the most primitive era, in this case alluding to the biblical myth of Adam and Eve as a starting point, until the current situation in which the human being coexists with machines or artificial materials, with the positivity of these new conditions, but also with the drastic consequences and with the dehumanization of the human being.

The album opens with ‘Adán’, an allegory of the birth of humanity and its subsequent punishment and exile. Sonorously the track is born from the entrails and progressively grows in various senses until it reaches an end worthy of Richard Strauss’s famous work ‘Thus spoke Zarathustra’. ‘Pulso’ is the second track on the album, a more chaotic track that initially mixes unalterable elements with dissuasive melodies until the track takes on a harder character.

‘Flagellum’ is Eva’s third track, degraded textures that evolve with a constant rhythmic background. On the other hand, with ‘Proxy’, this type of sonorities are also taken to the extreme but remain in the background, since what predominates are organic chords with other melodic motifs of plucked string. ‘Aorgánico’ is an extension of Proxy, the same harmony with plucked string instruments throughout the work, but with later more magnanimous and majestic chords.

Of ‘Ubico’, the sixth track of this album, we could say that it is a new consequence of Proxy and Aorganic. Although its first minutes are arid and disconcerting, what happens next is a great beauty, as the person who surrenders to the whips of death but does so at ease, thinking of all the great moments that have passed throughout his life. Huma closes the launch with the piece of the same name. The ending shows a more evolved, technological and anarchic part as the track progresses, although the end is a real end, as when the conductor of the orchestra remains motionless and does not raise the baton anymore.

Release date: November 11^th, 2019.