Nicolás Alvarado is a Chilean musician and producer, founder of the label “Paisaje del Pacífico”. With an outstanding career in electronic and ambient music, he has released more than 42 albums and collaborated with numerous artists. In 2019 he wins the award for best electronic music album, at the local festival Premio Pulsar, with his album “Suono”, together with composer Juan Pablo Abalo. His work is characterized by a deep connection with nature and the creation of immersive soundscapes. We were talking with Nicolás about his latest release, “AANA Hajimari: Un Viaje Sonoro Entre Imaginarios Acuáticos”, an LP that immerses us in a soundscape where beat and ambient intertwine with water as the protagonist. She tells us about her creative process, inspiration, elements used and other topics.
Released under the Paisaje del Pacífico label, this 9-track album transports the listener through both personal and universal experiences. Inspired by his travels to southern Chile, the album emerges from a deep connection to water and the associated experiences. From the calm of swimming underwater to the pulsating rhythms that evoke the movements of the sea, each track narrates an experience where the natural and the synthetic converge.
Alvarado worked in collaboration with Carlos Doerr and Francisco Holzmann for mixing and mastering, ensuring that each sound captured the precise essence he sought to convey. In addition, the participation of artists such as Alejandro Palacios on trombone and trumpet, Clara Cabezas on vocals and Lorena Alvarez on keyboards, provided additional layers of depth and texture, further enriching the album’s soundscape.
Looking to the future, Alvarado is already working on his next project and collaborating with various artists through the Paisaje del Pacífico label. With “AANA Hajimari”, Nicolás invites the listener to immerse himself in an introspective and sensorially enriching journey.
How did the idea for “AANA Hajimari” come about and what inspired you to create this LP?
As a composer and producer I have been working in parallel to other productions on themes, songs and music that comes out according to what I am exploring at the time. This LP was put together with several trips to the south of Chile, trips that somehow made me relate to various situations that had to do with water. To re-recognize the relationship with this medium through personal experience and interaction.
What challenges did you face in producing and recording this album, and how did you overcome them?
Generally the challenges are always the same. To be able to translate the ideas as you imagine them, it takes patience. Making an album takes time, facing oneself is always complex, sometimes one day you made one music and another day I want to make another. There are also many ideas that don’t reach what you imagined in the beginning, so at least for me I could say that it’s a constant exercise of trial and error.
Can you tell us more about your collaboration with Carlos Doerr and Francisco Holzmann in the mixing and mastering of the album?
With Carlos we have been working together for more than 10 years, we have projects like Isla del Sol, where to this day we still play together. With Francisco something similar, he has mastered most of the albums I have done, mine and projects that I produce and mix.
They both accompanied the process of the album from the Pre Mixes and we talked and listened to each other a lot to reach the results I was looking for. Mainly because this album has studio, field and binaural recordings.
The LP narrates a beat and ambient landscape from inside and outside the water. How did you manage to translate these sensations into sound?
The translation is made from the experience with the water. There are themes that are imaginary memories of swimming underwater and holding my breath for example; actions that I reproduced very often in the last few years. And mainly without wanting to create a literal translation I decide to use musical language to do so.
What techniques or equipment did you use to create the soundscapes present in “AANA Hajimari”?
The technique is varied, in the case of instruments, a trio of machines in the tracks give the base. Tr08 drum machine, Korg Minilogue and Roland Jupiter 4. I’ve been working on ambient guitars for a long time now, both in my music and in other productions. I generate melodic/harmonic atmospheres that I transfer from one effect to another. In several cases I work with the volume fader of the guitar, to remove the attack of the sound and thus be able to reach a pad sound.
Complementing this instrument work are field recordings of pianos and synths that were recorded outdoors. Recordings with a Tascam dr100 and with stereo and binaural techniques. In these recordings I went through different soundscapes, both of the city and of different moments of water, I got to walk in the water in some cases, as heard in the last track “Al sur de la Notalgia”.
How does your environment and personal experiences influence the music you create?
It’s usually a translation of context. So I could say that environment and experience drives my creative exercise.
On collaborations: What was it like working with them and what did they bring to the songs? What led you to invite them to participate in this project?
About the collaborations, Alejandro Palacios I have known him for a long time, even, at some point we rehearsed with the band Protistas, Palacios’ band, in an invitation that the band made me to collaborate. I really like his work in his solo albums and in collaborations as well.
For Hajimari, we recorded in two sessions, in my studio at that time in Santiago.
I had shown him the music in advance, and told him I was looking for the sound of brass, mainly horns. For the recording we used a couple of guitar pedals, delays, which we manipulated to generate a longer and more distant sound. The intention was not to make a trumpet sound in the strict rigor of the sound of this instrument nor with the trombone, the idea of having these two instruments was by timbre decision and exploration, I really like the sound of the pasty trumpet of Miles, Chet Baker or in ““Le Singe Bleu” ” by Vangelis, that way of playing was something I was looking for.
With Clara it was different, the proposal was that she would collaborate in voice. We talked a lot on the phone and shared some references for a while. Then we got together and Clara brought several writings that we read and tested. The name of the track ended up being called “Uno sin el Otro” (One without the Other) thanks to those writings. I was looking for a reflective story, something that would justify a second voice on the album. I tried a lot of things, and it didn’t hit the tone I was looking for. The music needed something darker but soft and with a subdued look. And that’s how it was, we got together, we read a lot of very good writings, and we recorded the selected ones, and then we only edited some things, so that rhythmically it would move forward.
With Lorena it was different, we recorded at her house. I had also proposed it to her before and we were commenting and listening to some references. That track has a YMO imaginary, and I felt that we could collaborate, I was looking for someone who had that fluidity and experience of rhythmic music with harmonies in keys. A lot of what I’ve heard in his projects.
How did Isabel Margarita’s art influence the visual conceptualization of the album?
It influenced a lot, it was a fortuitous choice. She is an artist, a photographer, a sound artist. We met on a date where I was presenting myself. Looking at her work, she linked me directly to this album, even before finishing it, and I proposed it to her. The photograph that was used (not complete) for the cover, is the same from that day that I wrote to her and sent her the album, not knowing if it would be given.
I was looking for the image, I always had the idea, logically for me, an image of water, for the whole process lived with the disc.
Looking for it, I came across his work and it was a sensation at first, as I said, I saw this series of photographs that he had and I wrote to him.
We talked for a long time, because at the beginning there were several options since his work fit naturally with the sound of this album. We did several tests, with that and even other photos and typographies, until not long before the release of the album we managed to finish it, maybe a month and a half or less before the date that was predicted.
How important is for you the coherence between visual and sound in your projects?
The album was ready a long time ago, but it was precisely that relevance why it didn’t come out sooner. I took enough time until I felt that the sound and visuals really matched.
What artists, genres or recent experiences have influenced the creation of “AANA Hajimari”?
A year and a couple of months ago I created a new publishing house called Paisaje del Pacífico, a publishing house that has given continuity to the catalog previously published by the ISLA label. That has been my most influential experience, thinking of everything along the Pacific coast, from Chile to Japan or something like that.
You have worked in a variety of genres and projects throughout your career, how has your musical approach evolved over time?
My musical focus has mainly expanded, I seek out and listen to a lot more music than I used to, every year it advances.
What other projects do you have in mind for the near future, both solo and in collaboration with other artists?
I’m working on a second album already, and I hope I can have it for next year. And in collaborations we are putting together a Compilado through the label where there are feat with Moyano, Sara, El negro es la noche, and several more out there.
This material and what place does it occupy, from your point of view, in the electronic and ambient scene specifically?
I think it adds a color to the tireless work that artists, musicians, producers, photographers and all of us who work in the cultural scene in Chile do.
It is an album that tries to propose honest music and recognize the constant work of the creative process in an electronic and ambient scene.
What are your expectations about “AANA Hajimari” in terms of dates and tours?
I hope to release it soon in physical form and I’ve been presenting part of the album in concerts I’ve done in dates like Tiempo Real in Santiago, El teatro Enrique Molina in Concepción and En Montecarmelo in Santiago as well.
I would like to do a release soon, in the South, Conce, Santiago, Valparaiso. I am working for that.
Credits AANA Hajimari
Music and production by Nicolas Alvarado Azolas
Mixed by Carlos Doerr
Mastered by Francisco Holzmann
Art by Isabel Margarita
Track 3 and 4 Trombone and trumpet by Alejandro Palacios
Track 4 Voice by Clara Cabezas
Track 7 Keyboard by Lorena Alvarez
Edited by Paisaje del Pacifico 21 June 2024
