01 Parallel Roads
Channel: Vida Exuberante
Date: 18/03/2020

Hi everyone!


Well, time has come to analyze, comment and review the first of the songs on my discography, the one that opens the first album: ‘Parallel Roads’.


This track, quite remarkable within the album and my own discography, has a protagonist, to whom I dedicated the theme: my friend Luis Francisco Llamas.


We both lived in Aluche (a neighborhood in the south of Madrid), and one morning he called me and asked me to accompany him to buy a synthesizer. So we were going up Calle Leganitos, which goes up from Plaza de España, and we entered Radikal Music. There a Korg X3 synthesizer was purchased by him. The guy from the store explained that he had a 16-track synthesizer and that it was the best thing to create music at the time. My jaw was drippin'.


We went back to his house to try it, and I remember it was a cloudy day. When we arrived we were testing sounds, and they were wonderful.


A few days later he came home and lent me the synthesizer for a few days. It was a dream for me to have that tremendous synthesizer at home, and during that month I wrote many songs, almost all of which have become part of the first two albums of my discography.


Unfortunately, I do not remember dates, since I have my diaries in Spain. But it was all sometime in the spring of 1996.


If I remember correctly, this is the second song I wrote then, and it was definitely the one that convinced me that the Korg X3 had everything I needed to materialize all the channel of musical expression that I needed to convey from within. Perhaps with the exception of guitar sounds, for which I started using the same synthesizer, until obviously ending up recording with real guitars for subsequent years.


The track begins with the typical Korg X3 piano preset, called Piano 16´, to which is added another preset that has been quite present in my music, the Ether Bells that accompany the piano.


Later, a sweep synth appears giving rise to a constant rhythm, with a contained drums, and some bongos which give it an Afro-Latin touch.


I was able to convey on this theme a feeling of serenity mixed with excitement and adventure, and the pianos that come and go seemed like a part of me that had been asleep for years, and was finally finding a way out to show itself to the world.


The influence of Michael Gettel, a great American pianist and composer and a great friend of mine, whose friendship and good musical advice I have enjoyed over the past few years through Facebook and email, is undeniable. My two favorite albums of hers are 'The Key' from 1991 and 'The Art of Nature' from 1993, which I discovered a few years ago. They are masterpieces, but in all his albums the melodies are intelligent and full of feeling. I think he's been the one that has mad a group led by a piano sound best, although there are other artists who are also very good at that style. It was also him who inspired me to narrate my musical themes in this way. He does this on his Facebook account, and it seems to me a great idea, since it increases by giving more data the experience of us who follow his music.


You can also find some acoustic guitars in some moments of the song, which were not at the beginning, but I recorded years later. Although last year, 2019, I removed them and re-recorded them because they didn't sound good at all in my opinion.


I perfectly remember the astounding happiness I experienced while creating the song, and also a terrible scare when for a few of minutes it seemed that everything I had done was erased. I was literally learning how to operate the 16-track sequencer while recording this song. And it wasn't easy.


It has been twenty-four years since that night when I started creating this theme. Long time. But here it is. I hope you like it.


As for the title, ‘Parallel roads’, it refers to friendship, and I dedicated it to my friend Luis. One day he joked that these roads could be separated. That's how it was, but never entirely, because for me a friend is forever.


Thanks, Luis. I owe you a lot. Perhaps with this belated recognition of your generosity and friendship I can thank you in part.


https://youtu.be/2jwgFnU-gDQ