This summer, after long hours of work, I finally was able to complete the creation of the first live show for my music project, Asceta. It was the first time I put together a production like this one. Bringing together motion graphics with live music was a big challenge but I was always guided by my intuition and the advice of my collaborators. With the use of pre-hispanic instruments, combined with ancient instruments from other parts of the world and modern instrumentation, I attempted to create a narrative that will provoke vitality, self awareness and an enhanced perception of our relationship to our planet Earth to the audience. This project was done in collaboration with choreographer Paco Ziel, dancer Maika Giasson, lighting designer Benoit Lariviere, photographer Miguel Labastida, and motion graphic designer Francisco Fonseca. This was done thanks to the support of the CALQ and the Maison de la Culture de NDG. The piece will be premiered in 2024!
New Album Peregrinaje al Cosmos
Hello everyone! I feel super grateful to be able to share with you today this new electronic album that I made in the last two years. The album is titled Peregrinaje al Cosmos and narrates the journey of an ascetic towards the culmination of their destiny. The creative process of this album was strongly inspired by the experience of working on the creation of a piece of dance and music in collaboration with my dear Paco Ziel, Diana Leon and Vías. This performance piece, titled Flesh and Sound, takes much of its inspiration from the pre-Hispanic dance and music of Mesoamerica. That is why while listening to the album you will be able to hear sounds that go back to ancient times, when humans and nature communicated respectfully through sound and dance. I hope you enjoy it a lot! Thanks for listening. I want to thank all the Mexican artisans that created all the pre-hispanic instruments used in this album such as Gilberto Chávez Espinosa who made the quadruple flute and other beautiful huilacapiztlis present throughout the album.
I dedicate this album to my family and my ancestors.
Credits: Artwork: Damian Siqueiros
Graphic design: Luisa Reyes Rojas
Trumpet Snail or atecocolli: Paco Ziel
Music written, mixed, recorded and executed: Bernardo Alvarado Rojas
Mastering: Sam John Precise Mastering
New Projects on the Horizon
Hi Everyone,
This 2021 will see the beginning of some really exciting projects. I’m starting to produce electronic dance music as Asceta. With this project I will put my heart into creating music that can bring sensitivity and spirituality in to the dance floor. I decided to use this name because it inspires me to be humble and to try my best to be selfless and work for something bigger than myself. You will be able to listen to many sound recordings of nature I’ve been recording throughout the years and my voice as well. :D For me it is such a big thing to be using my mouth to create music. I’ve always been so shy about it. But with this project I feel it is the time to do so. To get out of my confort zone. I will be releasing very soon a live music video I made last week.
Also! I’m starting to collaborate with artist Paco Ziel for the new dance company Vías! They have a very forward thinking approach to performance and overall artistic creation. They work a lot around the concept of transdisciplinary. Which according to wikipedia it is the research strategy that crosses many disciplinary boundaries to create a holistic approach. Which means all artists involved are encouraged to transcend their main artistic discipline to become “artists” in its most raw sense. This means I will be moving, making music, dancing and just expressing myself! I have to say I feel some inner resistance to fully let go. But I know this is a great opportunity and I will just completely give my whole self to the cause!
More exciting projects are taking shape. But I still can’t share with you the details. Wish my good luck. I hope the best for you as well!
INCORPOREA
Hello Everyone :) It’s been a few weeks since the release of INCORPOREA, the first full length album that I’ve produced for my project KALMO. The experience made me learn a lot. It took me about two years to create the repertoire with the band, record it, mix it and release it. Many or most of the musical decisions had to be done by me. This was something I was not expecting when I put together the band. I thought the tracks would magically get done by just jamming with the band once a week. I slowly realized that someone had to guide the compositions from beginning to end in order to move faster into having them ready for performance and to eventually be able to record them. We officially started jamming on October 2018. I set our first concert date on March of 2019 in order to put pressure on us to get things done. While all of this was happening I was also working a bit less than 30 hours a week as a cook. This made of course the process a bit slower. Nevertheless, we achieved our goal of being ready for that show! The result was good, but a lot of the music was improvised and the compositions were lacking direction. This is when I realized I had to take the compositional responsibility of better structuring the music. I still decided to leave blanks for the musicians to filled in with their talent, creativity and improvisational skills. This I think was the biggest challenge. To fully get to know the strengths of my musicians and to compose music that would perfectly fit their abilities and leave room for them to pour in their identity into the music. We gave five more shows to finish consolidating the music and then we were finally ready to record the album. The winter of 2019 arrived and we started by working on Dancing Light, our first single. Then COVID hit and luckily I was living with Lucia at that time! We were able to record her parts at our home, and whenever possible, very carefully and respecting the health guidelines, I was able to record the rest of the band. The mix took me quite a good amount of time!
Two months before the release of the album I launched a crowdfunding campaign to help me with the costs of production of the album. I learned a lot I must say. It was a humbling experience. On November 20th the album was released! Give it a listen. Let me know what you think!
Here is a review of the album by York Calling if you feel like reading it :)
This new way of life is bringing growth!
Almost right when the quarantine started I started to write this guitar piece. I missed so much hugging someone and just seeing someone face to face. I was lucky to be living in Canada at this time and so I had access to some economic stability regardless of everything. But still, after cancelling shows I really wondered what was next. This guitar piece expresses everything I felt at the moment. Stress, hope, homesickness, peace, anxiety, happiness and a whole mix of feelings. Maybe you will feel connected to this guitar piece because of this.
Right now I’m in the process of finishing my first full length album ever. Working with the band has been such a gift. They believe in me in ways not even I believe in myself. I will never be able to thank them enough. All the tracks are recorded and almost completely finally mixed. I’m just missing Alma, a flamenco inspired piece of music. All the parts are recorded except the guitar part. I have to say I feel scared to record this guitar. I have so much respect to the Flamenco style and so that puts quite a lot of pressure on me. And I have decided to keep it simple just so I can finish the album. If I waited to the day I feel confident enough to record this piece, maybe I would have to wait till I turn 40 years old. A new end of a chapter is coming and that brings me so many different sensations. Any one that has created and album and put it out, knows exactly how this feels. I send you all a big hug. I hope you like this album. I’m already working on the next one by the way haha. I think I will title it Cycles. I will talk more about it in the future.
Bear
Adapting to this new way of life
Once the COVID-19 quarantine started I had to cancel some of the shows that I was planning to have with KALMO. The result was that I, like many other people, ended up with a lot of more time available. It is a good time for us artist to take advantage of this miss-fortune to work hard on our craft. We also have to take advantage of the possibilities of sharing our work through social media and other web platforms more than ever. Hopefully soon we will be able to go back to our normal life style.
I would like to share this video that talks about flamenco musical style “Solea”. It is one of the most ancient styles of flamenco, and is one of my favourites. Wishing you all the best.
B.
A gifted Human
I had the pleasure to find out about this musician today. This is one of the compositions of his new album “Elgar”. You can clearly imagine all the beautiful music that has gone through his ears, soul, and fingers. Luckily to us, he is one of those gifted people that was born in the right family that properly nurtured his talent from an early age. I honestly wished more families were like this. Where in the situation of having a children with very strong desires towards a profession that might seem risky to some, regardless of what it might be, they give full support to that child understanding that this will give him or her a better chance of succeeding in life. Nevertheless, if that was not your case, and your dreams were never nurtured from an early age, I think it is never too late. But, you must accept that it will take a long time to achieve, a fact we are not very aware of when we are in our early years of life. And this is why it seems more scary from an older age. We are just more aware of time and how we use it. Hope many of you find the courage to follow all those unfulfilled desires!
As the temperature starts to drop.
There’s this point in the year when all immigrants from southern countries start to really think of their homelands. As the winter starts to get closer and closer is inevitable to day dream of the sunny places some of us come from. For me this applies very much, but also a strong creative energy starts to incubate inside me. I foresee that hibernation is coming and to me this means having the time to create a lot of new music. For KALMO almost everything is composed already, but for Asceta and my new classical music album it is all just starting to happen. I’m really looking forward to listen to what comes out of my pencil. In the mean time, I leave you with this song from a popular San Jarocho band from Veracruz, Mexico. Hopefully it will warm you up as much as it does to me.
El viaje continúa
It’s been almost two months since I stopped working as a cook. I’m now using all the money I could save last year to produce one album for KALMO and another one for Asceta, my new electronic dance project. I’m also starting to compose my first classical music album with which I’ll try to re-connect with my Mexican roots as much as possible. I’ll be visiting Mexico soon and I will be recording the lives of several people with a sound recorder. Then, back in Montreal in the solitude of my studio I will re-listen to them and try to translate them into music. The process will be slow but I’ll try to represent those stories the best as possible.
I’m so truly grateful of having the possibility and time to create all these music. I’m now able to create all the different types of music that I truly love creating without having to only pick one of them due to the lack of time and money. Obviously, doing so comes with some sacrifices but it feels right and that’s all that matters.
Today I wake up listening to this music that transports me to my country, its stories and its people. I hope you can enjoy it as much as I do.
Sara Pagé and her magic harp
Few days ago I had the tremendous pleasure and honor to listen perform to this inspiring musician. She is mostly famous for being a member of the Barr Brothers band, but she has also worked with other very outstanding artists such as the legendary Lhasa de Sela. On the night of the show she was by herself with her harp plugged to some effect pedals and with a pair of cello bows. For me it was very meaningful to see and listen to an artist that is so truly devoted to her instrument and to her audience. By listening her play and connect with her instrument I was able to infer right away that she has spent tremendous amounts of time in the solitude creating a powerful bond with her harp, the universe, and herself.🍂
At the end of her show I was able to talk with her for a bit. She explained me that this solo work has the intention of being a tribute to her amazing instrument. She wants to show to the public how versatile and complete the harp is as an instrument. And I must say she succeeded. The video I’m sharing shows one of the pieces she performed at the show. Enjoy!!!
Music that makes me stand up and dance!
There’s so much to say about this musician and his work but honestly no words will make any justice to what you are about to experience. Alfredo Rodríguez was discovered by Quincy Jones at the Montreux Jazz Festival and consequently got offered an opportunity by Quincy to leave Cuba and start a career in music in the United States. Since then he has been conquering peoples hearts all over the world with his rich percussive and melodious piano playing. Please enjoy!
New Live Video!
I’m happy to share with you the new live music video I created with clarinetist Lucía Sanches, bassist Richard McLeish and drummer Alexis Duval. We are performing a piece called Breathe. I arrived to one of our rehearsals with this idea and we slowly created a whole piece with it. I hope you enjoy it!
Also, we are currently creating new music! I just bought my first synthesiser ever and so I’m incorporating it to the old repertoire but also creating new one with it. It is so much fun!
I’m also rediscovering flamenco guitar playing. So many exciting things happening. I’ll keep you in the loop.
Kalmo.
New Live Video "Surrender to the Now”
This fall I started working on improving my tremolo on classical guitar. I would practice it for long periods of time, repeating the same notes over and over again. After a while I started to put notes on top of this repeating tremolo just to keep my brain active. The result was the birth of this piece to which I later added a melodic line for clarinet. When I showed the piece to clarinetist Lucia Sanchez she right away told me she wanted to record it with me. And well, here is the result. Enjoy!
My favourite band ever.
To my surprise, I found out Yo-Yo Ma created a band with string players Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile and Stuart Duncan. Maybe it is the instrumental band I’ve enjoyed listening to the most. The playfulness with which they perform reminds me of kids just having fun in the playground. It reconnects me with some of the very important reasons for us musicians to make music. There is so much about this video that I just can’t put into words, and luckily it is unnecessary for me to do so. So please just give this a listen and enjoy!
Happy New Year!
This is the year I’m starting to play live! I started a collaboration with three musicians. Clarinetist Lucía Sanchez, drummer Alexis Duval, and bassist Richard McLeish, they are all now collaborating with me to create new music and a live show. They have become a big part of my musical life.
So I started the year with the discovery of this new Spanish artist, I hope you like it. I find her music very interesting. Please enjoy!
When music notes come to life.
What a great performance of Philip Glass’ music by Kronos Quartet. I think this music could only be done by completely setting yourself free. This might be my new favourite music of the moment :)
Kronos Quartet makes you feel you are listening to a full orchestra. Amazing. What a connection these musicians have. Please let yourself be taken away by this celestial music. Enjoy.
Immortal Mentors
I come back to this interview of Sergio Celibidache every once in a while in order to remind myself of some of the most important aspects of music. Every time I see this video I learn something new. His explanations are very clear and well structured. I believe every musician should give a few minutes of their time to listen to him. And even if you are not a musician, after this, you will never listen to music the same way again.
New video for Shadows and Reflections out now!
Today is a special day. I’m very happy to share with you the new video for my latest single Shadows and Reflections. The whole process was very enjoyable, specially through the composition and recording stages of it. Now is time to write to blogs to get my music heard! Please send some good vibes my way. : )
Where I'm at.
I find life transitions such magical moments of life. I’ve learned to accept failures as part of my process of being alive and becoming an artist. And it feels great. I’ve never been so creative and productive in my life. And all without or with little fear of failure. I’ve accepted that my life might be a beautiful mistake. And that’s alright. I started creating weekly tracks! I will be posting them on Soundcloud and social media soon. I’ve got a new sweet part-time job and I’m creating new exciting things for you all with all my available time. In love I am.
Also, I just released my new Single, in collaboration with Richard McLeish! Shadows and Reflections! Check it out.
The ups and downs of this path I've choseN.
As my life goes by, I realize being a musician and sharing my work and my perspective of life is all I want to do. Like really, it's so hard for me to do anything else. I work hard every day to make music my main source of income, but still have to do other things on the side. This situation can take you to dark places sometimes. For example: I started working as a cook at a Mexican restaurant one month ago. After two weeks of working there I started to loose all my motivation. Doing something that was not creative started to take all my energy away. At some point I completely stopped caring about the food I was preparing. As a result I started to make mistakes. The owner started yelling at me and that just made things worse. After three weeks of working there I had to quit that job. When I got home after my last day of work the idea and fear that I could maybe spend the rest of my life doing side jobs like that one in order to bring economic stability to my life took over me. Then, the idea of quitting music and just focusing on a career that would most likely bring money to my life started to grow disproportionately. Now, here was a good time to put in practice some mind control. Putting my mind in blank so I could let that sea of thoughts calm down was my first step. Then, realizing that those thoughts are only thoughts. They are not real, was step two. And step three for me was to realize, like I said before, that this is the only thing I want to do. Nothing makes me remotely as happy as doing this. So in my case I don't let myself have another choice. Otherwise I would be lying to myself. Step four was to think that I create my music for a bigger purpose than myself. I genuinely want my music and art to help others become more in touch with themselves, and thus bring enrichment into their lives.
Now, here is and objective thought I have: If so many people are very successful at selling non artistic and poorly crafted music, why wouldn't we be able to do the same with artistic and well crafted music? It should actually be easier and cheaper! Truth is yes, we don't have nearly the same amount of resources record labels have, but thanks to social media, etc, the gates have been open for us! We just need to become good at it, at sharing our work. How? Practice, practice, practice. There's no secret. I believe.
My new single will be out on October 1st! Shadows and Reflections. Keep up the good thoughts!
