Biography

Flame Jazz Records released Pedro's Dream, the debut album by Mexican guitarist-composer Héctor Lepe. The album contains nine songs that take the listener on a deep journey into the mystical legends and landscapes of Mexico.

Héctor Lepe is a jazz guitarist who grew up in Mexico and later moved to Helsinki. His first album release, Pedro's Dream, is Lepe's debut as both a band leader and a composer. The album tells Lepe's story on both a personal and musical level. The compositions are mainly inspired by Mexican folklore, literature and art.

In Héctor Lepe Quartet the band leader plays alongside young Finnish jazz talents: saxophonist Max Zenger, bassist Juuso Rinta and drummer Teemu Mustonen. The group manages to mix Latin American elements with the tonality of modern jazz. The result is a fresh combination, where space has been left for the individuality of each member of the quartet.

The album's title track Pedro's Dream is inspired by the short story Pedro Páramo by Mexican author Juan Rulfo. The main character of the book, Pedro, travels through southern Mexico in search of his father and ends up literally in a ghost town. The characters in the story are constantly changing their shape, questioning the boundary between reality, dream and the afterlife.

The events of Rulfo's work take place on the fertile west coast of Mexico, in the state of Colima, where Héctor Lepe spent his childhood summers. The album's opening song Black Shore is dedicated to the black sand beaches of the volcanic region.

Tracklist

1. Black Shore
2. Ulysses and the Sirens
3. Pedro’s Dream
4. Intro - Memory
5. Memory Drizzling
6. See You Later
7. Intro - If You Forget Me
8. If You Forget Me
9. M.T.U.