Part 2

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece or album that's particularly dear to you, please? Where did the ideas come from, how were they transformed in your mind, what did you start with and how do you refine these beginnings into the finished work of art?

Last year I started working on Anima, an experimental album that will be out on the 12th of June through Clang. I've long wanted to make an experimental and ambient album, but didn't feel ready yet. Over the previous years I've spent hours listening to different producers like Ryuichi Sakamoto, Uwe Schmidt, Tetsu Inoue, Pete Namlook, Holger Czukay, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, among many others. The way they develop textures and long, patient and subtle narratives inspired me profoundly.

In my imagination, feelings and experiences turned into rituals, in connection with nature. So I first began with the title track. I imagined myself in a forest and being spectator of a ritual made centuries ago. I heard mainly percussion and flutes, so I started with these instruments. Then I added more which felt right, together with pads that take you to some kind of dream.

On the same path, I continued with "Rito de Muerte". A track made mostly of unprocessed field recordings; from a forest, from a ritual where the kultrun (a mapuche percussion instrument) was played, and water running after a storm. Every recording had a strong meaning to me, and the track has a narrative that I wanted to communicate; birth-death-rebirth.

After these two tracks, I developed 3 other tracks that are intended to be some kind of journey or company into the listener's introspection process. In these, and in "Rito de Muerte", I also experimented with my voice, trying to blend it with other instruments.

In all tracks I added strong sub-basses, some made with the microKorg and others with the Neutron. This idea came from experiments I'd conducted with sub basses; a strong feeling in the chest, sometimes uncomfortable, but not disturbing, as if sub basses where moving something deep.

All this work was also done during a period where we had a social outbreak here in Chile, due to many unfair political and social situations that have been accumulating in many years. It was a very strong & frustrating period; marching in the streets claiming for justice and getting violence in response. It has been like going back into dictatorship.

Besides that I was passing some difficult times and making hard decisions. So creating the album was also helpful for me; it made me turn inwards and seek for peace and answers.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? What supports this ideal state of mind and what are distractions? Are there strategies to enter into this state more easily?

My ideal state of mind for being creative is having a good mood and leaving insecurity away. Being active supports this, while thinking too much is my biggest distraction. Strategies to enter into this state more easily can be listening to cheerful music, talking with a friend, going out for a walk, for example.

How is playing live and writing music in the studio connected? What do you achieve and draw from each experience personally? How do you see the relationship between improvisation and composition in this regard?

I haven't done much live presentations, so my experience is poor and very different from what I do in the studio. In the studio I work a lot on details, which I can't do well in a live setting.

In live gigs I am always impressed on how differently I hear what I'm doing, as if being a different place. People and other factors, have an influence on sound, which I can't reproduce back in the studio.

How do you see the relationship between the 'sound' aspects of music and the 'composition' aspects? How do you work with sound and timbre to meet certain production ideas and in which way can certain sounds already take on compositional qualities?

I think sound and composition aspects shape each other, starting from sound and evolving into composition, then back to sound again. As I move into experimental music, sound becomes the most important aspect, taking on compositional qualities.

I aim to develop myself into this field, so right now, I'm very much into studying properties of sound.

Our sense of hearing shares intriguing connections to other senses. From your experience, what are some of the most inspiring overlaps between different senses - and what do they tell us about the way our senses work? What happens to sound at its outermost borders?

I think hearing is the most unconscious of senses, we barely capture consciously all the sound we are exposed to. And sight takes too much of our attention. When I want to listen to something in the best way, I find it better to close my eyes, and by doing this I also activate my imagination; I see shapes, colours, textures. I've used glasses since I was 10, without them I barely see a few meters away, so I think my weak eyes have made me develop my sense of hearing in a different way.

All senses become unconscious at some point, but our body still receives all the information. I've thought that the sum of these unconscious information received is captured by what we call our sixth sense. This intrigues me; how can music explore this side?

Art can be a purpose in its own right, but it can also directly feed back into everyday life, take on a social and political role and lead to more engagement. Can you describe your approach to art and being an artist?

As music has been some kind of salvation to me, I've always seen it from this point of view; it helps us transmute hidden emotions.

Now that our country has a complicated political situation, I think most artists here are rethinking what we want to communicate. For example, now I'm working on new pieces of experimental music that will be published together with poetry. We're also thinking about inviting other artists into this. This intention of collaborations between different arts is to combine more content.

It is remarkable, in a way, that we have arrived in the 21st century with the basic concept of music still intact. Do you have a vision of music, an idea of what music could be beyond its current form?

I think with technology music is mutating into a more extended field. We humans are also mutating, our ceremonies today are not the same as 1000, 500, 50 years ago. Music was played on special occasions back in history and now we can be listening to music all day long if we want. So we're probably getting more demanding and individualistic.

Music will remain important for different kinds of ceremonies, but I think it will reach another dimension on personal satisfaction or needs, taking us to new sensations. Besides, technology is allowing us to create sounds which are new to us and we're just beginning to go deep into this.