Writings about Music

Rafa Gets It

It is so gratifying to rediscover various writings about my music from before. The most beautifully titled, Cosmic Rituals, a 2001 interview conducted by Rafa Dorada for Margen, a former print music publication in Spain, is extraordinary, offering vitally insightful questions that inspired me to give most revealing responses touching the core of my music. The interview was conducted in English, and translated into Spanish for Margen.

Here are five of Rafa's questions, revealing a remarkable depth of perception and understanding:

"Your music is a wonderful mix among a lot of genres and subgenres of electronic, contemporary and ethnic Asiatic musics (Indian, Chinese. gamelan ...) and I'd say these influences are expressed from a cosmic point of view. Are you OK with this opinion?"

"Despite of these different influences mixed, at last, we've got homogeneous and imaginative albums. How do you do it? I hear the Lou Harrison's and Laszlo Hortobagyi's influence in your music. Do you agree?" 

"I would say that your style is between the past and the future, between musical primitivism and avant-garde contemporary. Is your music a type of new ritual for the XXI century?"

"The variety of moods and settings in your music albums is great. Your music is very dynamic, but also very hypnotic. Tell me about this. Do you think your music can be a way toward meditative states? "

"At this point in your career as a recording artist you've spread your stylistic boundaries further than most would ever dream. What other musical realms await a sonic explorer such as yourself? What should we expect from your next works?"

Here is the complete Cosmic Rituals Interview conducted by Rafa Durado for Margen in Spain.

- Michael Robinson, January 2021, Los Angeles

 

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Michael Robinson is a Los Angeles-based composer and writer (musicologist).