Review: Betterwithmusic 2013

These are the sounds and rythms that came to betterwithmusic’s library in 2013…

 

SKETCHES

Sketches is basically an album of soul, of instrumental hiphop, of R’n’B. Sensual and reflective, in gereral. Delicate, but also pick up some rythm explosions. Passionate could be the adjective. But a controlled passion, elegant, somewhat distant. It’s a ritual of seduction.
Synthetic sounds close to the 80’s or 90’s to create songs based on chord progressions and basic arrangements of soul and funk. It looks like “Raw Dub”, but more soul and less “dub”.

SCENES FROM THE ZOO

Pop melodies with distorted guitars. Powerpop. Some grunge and shoegaze tunes too. Nerve riffs and powerful rhythms. Music that seeks immediate happiness boldly. No worries, no perfectionism. Noise. Positive songs, cheerful melodies, passional and “excessive”.
Referring to other projects of the library, I could say that “Scenes” it’s more optimistic and positive than “The Crowd”, more rogue than “Traveller’s Guide”.

GALAXY

Rhodes and Wurlitzer, pianos, acoustic drums and programming beats, strong synth-bass lines, slap bass, playful guitars, guitars with vocoder, tens of clavinets, classic synths (Moog, ARP, Davosynth, Jupiter-8, M1 etc), string arrangements … All tools available to create a dance compilation with old-fashion sounds, while still sounding modern. To vindicate these old grooves with a contemporary album. A funky Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

VIIKINSAARI

Viikinsaari are small pieces for piano. And it’s water. It is the piano that calls the shots through melodies and rhythms inspired by the sounds of water, in their ways, their reflections … With string and wind arrangements that sound like whispers at times and other times explode in the ears leaving the piano in the background, like waves. A space for melancholy and contemplation.

SELE

Christmas songs that are not actually Christmas songs. The same happened with Año Nuevo and Postcard. They are songs inspired by this holiday season, by the winter, the family gatherings & reunions, the decorated houses … but at the same time, songs that can be heard all the year. Compositions about optimism and joy, with a touch of melancholy, couldn’t do it any other way. I wanted to add and highlight a homemade and imperfect character, direct, without excessive tweaking and production. Something accessible to young and old people.

New projects will come next year (I’m already working on it)
Keep in touch!

… and Happy 2014!!

Early Years

The first time (or second , can not remember ) I started to make music with digital tools was in 2003 (2004 ? Damn memory). They were my first steps, well before betterwithmusic adventure, before focusing on image / sound and background music. While I still expected to be a pop star, do world tours and to be on the lists of the best music of the year.
 
All happened with the occasion of a new musical talent contest. I downloaded Anvil Studio, a free music editor, and started the adventure. Logically, with a mouse, a seedy PC mic and the computer’s keyboard as instruments was quite difficult to get anything. GM sounds not really helping either. That’s why I got to work with samples, to scape of tinny sounds. Samples and a lot of sound effects. Things began to improve but believe me, was not easy of the lack of tools.
 
After many hours (and too much patience) I got a handful of remixes and songs that could be presented with dignity. Or so I thought at the time.
 
I recovered those songs and I think it’s time to make them public.
 

 

There was one more. Rachmaninov, Stevie Wonder, trip hop and traditional Asturian sounds for a tune already recovered for Fruela 757, one of my alter egos:
 

 
 
The answer is No. I did not win that contest.