In the spring of 2002, Scott Herren -- known best for avant-garde hip-hop under the moniker Prefuse 73 -- decided to put his beats in storage and move to Spain. There he met Eva Puyuelo Muns, a singer/songwriter with tastes in traditional Latin music similar to his own. Together, they took Herren's side project, Savath & Savalas, and filled it with classical guitar, bajo sexto, harmonium and Muns' hypnotic Catalan vocals. Once residing in the ambiguous "post-rock" genre, Savath & Savalas now comes quite close to being full-on Spanish folk.
The new album, "Apropa't," is soft, sad and sensual, like the last embrace of a lover before a long absence. Lying beneath its tender surface, however, are the electrical undercurrents of Herren's samplers, their tones and twitters floating subtly in the background like morning fog on a Barcelona street. "Apropa't" may be short on momentum, but it has mood to burn.
