Music does not always begin on paper; sometimes it begins in listening.
Buenos Aires, December 2025
In a musical landscape increasingly shaped by rigid production schedules and predefined concepts, the collaborative project led by guitarist Quique Sinesi and cellist Astrid Motura emerged along a very different path. Their album La Magia was not conceived as a closed work from the outset, but as the result of a long process of shared performances, gradual discovery and deepening mutual trust. Rather than imposing structure on the music, the duo allowed structure to arise organically from years of dialogue between instruments, spaces and experiences.
The origins of the project trace back nearly a decade to an informal encounter after a concert, when both musicians sensed an immediate and unusual affinity between guitar and cello. That first intuition was later confirmed on stage, where the resonance of the cello and the harmonic openness of the guitar blended with surprising naturalness. What followed was not an accelerated studio plan, but a series of carefully chosen live performances that functioned as testing grounds. Each concert became an experiment in balance, listening and risk, allowing musical ideas to evolve without pressure.
Improvisation played a central role in this process, not as a decorative gesture but as a structural principle. Many of the pieces that eventually found their way onto the album were shaped and reshaped in front of audiences, gaining coherence through repetition and trust rather than through rigid rehearsal. Over time, certain improvised passages stabilized, not because they were fixed by design, but because they revealed an internal logic that felt complete. In this sense, the album does not freeze a moment; it documents a trajectory.
The recording process itself mirrored this philosophy. Sessions took place across different years and locations, beginning in Luján in 2018 and concluding later in Buenos Aires. Each phase captured a different stage of the duo’s artistic relationship, preserving the subtle changes in interaction that only time can produce. The studio was treated less as a place of correction and more as an extension of the laboratory formed on stage, where listening remained the guiding principle.
La Magia consists of seven pieces, each carrying traces of geography, memory and shared experience. Some compositions evoke landscapes encountered on tour, while others reflect more introspective urban atmospheres. Throughout the record, the cello assumes a fully dialogic role, shaping melodic direction rather than merely supporting it. The guitar, in turn, alternates between harmonic foundation and exploratory voice. This reciprocity reinforces the sense that the album is not built on hierarchy, but on balance.
Audience reception has confirmed the coherence of this approach. Early live presentations in Buenos Aires sold out quickly, not because listeners were drawn to spectacle, but because the music communicated a sense of authenticity and openness. Each performance continues to slightly transform the material, reaffirming that the album is not a final statement, but a snapshot of an ongoing conversation.
Beyond its musical content, the project stands as an argument for patience in creative work. By allowing ideas to mature slowly and privileging trust over control, Sinesi and Motura demonstrate that improvisation, when grounded in deep listening, can produce forms of lasting clarity. La Magia ultimately reflects a shared belief that music grows stronger when it is allowed to breathe, change and surprise even its creators.
Cada silencio habla.
Every silence speaks.