Here’s to the ever new beginning…
Hello friends!
Here I am, attempting for the umpteenth time to begin a newsletter campaign! So far, you, my audience, is made up of a diverse pool of people: some of you are direct friends of mine, or colleagues, or perhaps you landed here because you learned about me from my Gumroad page or attended some seminar I’ve given in the past.
I’ll try to write simply and to each type of interest that may bring us together – some of you are not musicians, others yes, but perhaps not the “tech/geeky” type like myself, and some of you might not really care about my potentially philosophical musings! At any rate, I’ll try to give you concise news about the different things I make, and hopefully a few thoughts that you might find inspiring or entertaining.
If you find these are not your cup of tea, no hurt feelings if you unsubscribe (I myself like to keep them newsletters somewhat at bay)! Also, for those of you who are only interested in techy news (software updates and such), just follow me on Gumroad.
At any rate, I'm planning on sending these roughly once a month.
Some Recent News
New Music
Last week I spent a great 4-5 hrs. mixing my latest track with a dear and admired friend, Enrique Gonzalez Müller. Even though the song has yet to be mastered, I’ll be happy to share with you a demo I released on YouTube. The song is called Dear Mom, Dad, and features another good friend and actor, Tim Venable on narration (myself singing the melodic bits). It’s a love letter to my parents and uses music itself as a metaphor for “what to do with these things we call life, and death,” as I think, in everything we do, we’re in a constant dialog with ourselves and others, in order to make sense of the two. But it’s not a ‘sense’ that is some kind of concept, but instead, one that is dynamic, ever changing, and always assuming a position of wonder and discovery with every perception, one that makes us, with every step (or every note), stronger, more alive than before, and free:
My First Online Course
(Now widely available)
At the beginning of the year, I created a course that was related to my first venture into building software instruments – the instrument in question is called Acanto (a Max for Live device), which is a kind of emulation of analog sequencers. The course explores their history and looks at the current technology and how it can be used to create old and new ways to make all those bloops & bleeps we’ve come to love. In the process I recreate some famous sequences (in the world of – let's call it – techno-pop): Pink Floyd's On the Run & Depeche Mode's Waiting for the Night. And then, I venture into new ground and take a look at the Venezuelan rhythms Culo E Puya, and I remix – or repurpose – them in the context of a kind of techno/DJ set.
NOTE: the course is given in Spanish (sorry, English-only speakers! However, the videos on YouTube – not all of them – can provide automatic CC captions). I'm looking to revamp both (hopefully), Acanto and this course. If and when I do, I'll make an English version, when appropriate! In the meantime, I've posted the entire course (minus the course materials) for free (if you’re interested in the complete course, click here):
Elsener
(For those of you electronic music lovers)
Also, lately, I've began the adventure of learning to code! And so, I've made my first synthesizer, an 'analog' prototype of sorts, as a VST/AU plugin. You can check it out here:
https://flaviogaete.gumroad.com/l/elsener
From the Archives
For the past couple of years, I've been working pretty hard (among other things) on documenting all my artistic activity on my website. With every post I’ll make, I'm planning to dig into the vault and show you one of those projects.
I'll start with showing you some of the work I did while I was living as a freelancer in NYC and making music for theater, among other things. I've been involved for the last six years (& change) with New Place Players, a theater company that focuses mostly on Shakespeare plays, performed in someone's apartment, with an audience of 40 and with the standard five acts paired with a 5-course menu, put together by a guest chef!
In the following article, you'll learn about some of the music and sound design I made for one of their productions, A Midsummer Night's Dream. You'll also get a peek at my more nerdy side, as I created a proprietary system for manipulating all the sounds for the show so they may be performed live:
https://flaviogaete.info/midsummer
That’s it for this round. I hope you enjoyed reading! See you in November ;)
Xo-Flavio