The song "Healer" from your last album “Monument” apparently include the sound of the sea. It is felt that the coming and going of the sea is like a bath that heals, cleanses, and makes you want to stay in that place. How influences your music the natural environment?
“Healer was the very first piece I composed on the Synthi. It’s a one-take recording largely based on utilizing the noise generators. The waves generated by the Synthi are definitely sounds to immerse yourself in for a long time. Different kinds of environments can have a strong impact on me, including urban spaces. I grew up with nature at my doorstep. It was a sensual world to be in and it probably shaped the way I'm perceiving surroundings. I can easily get stunned, almost obsessed, by something like mountain landscapes as well as all the details of a single rock. It’s imaginable that it also affects my music in some sense, but I think it’s on a somewhat more hidden, subconscious level rather than a literal interpretation of the world.”
How you felt drawn to compose/produce your own music?
It was a natural attraction, I guess. Creating music was basically synonymous with how I entered music from the very beginning. As a child it was spontaneous music-making and singing, a way of being in the world. But I also created a fundamental, intimate, and deep relationship with music that I explored further as an adult.
I guess that playing the Synthi 100, or the Synthi 200 synthesizers must have some complexity. What were the most complex aspects - if any - that you had to sort it out?
“I never used the 256-step digital sequencer, it seemed intricate, or rather a bit sketchy. Every time someone would introduce me to it, it didn't behave as intended, so I made the pragmatic decision to exclude it as I simply didn’t have the time to explore it enough. The composition process in general was characterized by the essential condition that I was to perform the music live on the EMS Synthi 100 at Megaron Athens Concert Hall, without having access to the instrument to practice as much. That was probably the most complex parameter.”
Can you please tell us about the characteristics of the specific sites you like to work on?
“The embodied experience is central. Spaces offering immersion and interesting ways for the music to unfold in and merge with are inspiring and engaging to work in. Often that is bigger architectural spaces with long reverberation.”
Your music has a long development that strikes by its timbres and textures. What criteria you use to produce these sounds and its atmospheres?
“There are no particular predetermined criteria for my music in those aspects.
Often the sound source itself, with its inherent specific qualities, suggests a certain way of being shaped or enhanced. I listen to it and try to work with what’s already there.”
Do you combine your music with other art forms?
“Occasionally I perform the music of ‘Monument’ in an audiovisual version with visuals I’ve created in collaboration with a motion designer. The combination with different art forms mostly occurs through close collaboration with artists of other disciplines. In the context of live performances, I often work with light designers to activate the room in which my music is performed. I have also had collaborations with choreographers, dancers and other performing artists.”
Can you tell us about your upcoming projects?
“Recently I performed a new piece Svartmalm och kraftfält - en metallurgisk apoteos (Iron ore and force fields - a metallurgical apotheosis) at one of Sweden's most interesting art festivals presently, located in northern Sweden in the village of Vitsaniemi. Next up is a collaboration with a poet, a piece weaving text and music together. I will also start working on two other commissions: a pure electroacoustic piece and music composed for an electric guitar quartet.”
Guillermo Escudero
September 2023