projects
a lifetime in music
Solitary projects
1991: official debut as a pianist/composer
Presentation in the Teatro Chico theater in Santa Cruz de La Palma of my own repertoire "Imágenes de mi sila" (Images from my Island), inspired by the nature of La Palma.
Creation of "The Wait" (Indian Day)
The Indian Day (Dia de los Indianos) on Carnival Monday is one of the most special festivities of Santa Cruz de La Palma. It pays homage to all those people who emigrated to Cuba in the past, escaping hunger and misery; occasionally they would return years later as rich people. The whole town dresses up in the fashion of the time (white dresses and suits, Panama hats) and everywhere you hear Cuban music. Originally the festivity was only celebrated in the afternoon, but in 1992 Pilar Rey, director of the theatre school, proposed to do an improvised event in the morning. An old beat-up and out-of-tune piano was brought down from the old Casino to the street, the girls from the theatre school dressed up as coloured maids, and while they invited the surprised bypassers on cups of sangría I hammered out some blues, jazz oldies and Habaneras. The event was baptised "La Espera" (the wait), it was repeated next year and then it started to snowball until I was pushed out by the Son music bands that were given preference.
Presentation of my collection "Vida" (Life)
My second collection of solo piano pieces is called Life, as the inspiration for the four movement suite that acts as the central part, came from the birth of my first daughter.
(Teatro Chico and the Culture House of El Paso, 1992,)
Music in the library
A nice but short-lived proyect together with my former wife whose passion was to stimulate the interest of children for reading. We scanned the images of the book "Tomte Tummetott" by Astrid Lindgren with illustrations by Harald Wiberg, I translated the text to Spanish and while we projected the images, she read the story and I did a piano soundtrack.
(Library of El Paso 2005.)
Audiovisual " La Isla Secreta" (The secret island)
Apart from music, my other big passion is hiking. Since my adolescence I have been enormously fascinated by the combination of music and photography. In 2013 I presented the proyect "The Secret Island, impressions from the trails of La Palma", a concert with electronic music accompanied by a projection of photos from my hikes.
Presentation of the repertoire "Modern Classics"
A selection of classic pop and rock songs from the 50´s to the 80´s. I used the songs as a departing point for free impromprisations, Social club of Breña Alta, 2016.
Presentation of the repertoire "Christmas Carols around the world"
Free improvisations on christmas carols from the Byzantine Empire, Italy, Sweden, La Palma, England, Germany and Spain, The Tobacco Museum of Breña Alta, Christmas 2024.
Bands
Kondorerna
Stockholm. A school project when we were about 12 years and where I played the banjo, as the piano was already taken by somebody bigger and stronger than me. The band only survived a handful of rehearsals and we never actually gigged, but it was my first band experience and it got me hooked.
Bagüada
My first proper band, just after moving to La Palma in 1986. Garage rock, our own repertoire. We had several local gigs but the band dissolved when the drummer had to make military service and the bassist got married.
Orquesta Jamaica
An old school Latin dance music in the late 1980´s. Cumbias, merengues, some pop. Lots of gigs all over the island, long trips at ungodly hours, badly payed and a great lot of fun.
Paraiso Animal
I had been playing a bit of guitar with my friend Eremiot Rodriguez since we were about 11. Little by little we managed to get some equipment and in order to have a private space we cleaned out the unused garage of my mother. The garage became a sort of insular weekend jam-session venue and the band would just evolve from there. We were active for about a decade with various configurations, got to play outside of the island and recorded two albums.
Funky Connection
A duo together with the English singer Gary Prevost in the line of keyboard/voice duos like Soft Cell or the Pet Shop Boys. Several local gigs between 1991 and 1992, both covers and original songs.
Proyecto New Age
Meditative and atmospheric music with Ricardo Cáceres (guitar) and Victor Sicila (oboe) at the very end of the New Age music wave. With Ricardo I also did some music for an esoteric radio program.
Manifold
A cover band specialized in British and American pop and rock from the 50´s to the 90´s. It was formed by Observatory staff in 1988, The core of the band was always Alan Chopping (director, guitar, voice and harmonica), Renée Pit (guitar) and John Mills (bass). Around this core an immense number of musicians would pass, often astronomy students spending some time on the island. It was a band with no ego clashes and no desire to make a carreer in music. It was just a question of getting together and having a good time playing great music, and this attitude also permeated the live gigs. The band was dissolved in 2022 with the death of Alan Chopping.
Trio Fusión
A flamenco and jazz trio with Pedro Sanz and Eremiot Rodriguez (Paraiso Animal) which often was a quartet or a quintet. A different and interesting project that got a good acceptance with lots of local gigs,
Yes We Can
A tribute band to the 1970´s English progressive rock group YES. After two years of intensive rehearsals, a series of unfortunate events led to the dissolution of the band before we had had a single gig.
Forrain Office
A modern progressive rock / symphonic metal band with original material on a very high level, which was getting refloated after several years of inactivity. It was the most exigent, creative and fun band I´ve ever been in and where I had free hands to do everything from classic Hammond/Rhodes/Minimoog arrangements to loops, samples and modern electronica. The singer´s retirement and subsequent return to his native Germany made the project run out in the sand precisely when we were starting to promote ourselves.
Squonk
A cover band specialized in the 1970´s progressive rock genre. A series of unexpected problems led to the dissolution of the band before we had a complete repertoire.
Middletown
A cover band very much in line with Manifold, who tried to recover from a long period of inactivity. The lack of chemistry with the other band members and their overall lack of enthusiasm to keep up a regular rehearsal schedule meant that I only played with them during the summer of 2017,
La Tripulación
In 2023 Eremiot Rodriguez (Paraiso Animal) invited me to collaborate in a recording project with his new band La Tripulación, of which I passed to become an intergrated member.
Other
- Participation in the Christmas rondallas (a party of people that play in the church and on the streets) in the little village of Las Tricias where I lived. Starting at ten years of age and until I left the village some 15 years later, I would play the guitar, the accordeon and the timple (small ukulele-style rythm instrument traditional for the Canaries.)
- Collaboration as an organist for the choir of the School of Music and Dance of Tijarafe and Tazacorte, as well as collaborations con the pupils´ symphony orchestra.
- Performances in various book presentations and art vernissages.
- Collaboration in various album recordings.
- . Creation of the music for the kid´s theatre and marionette group Tal Cual Troupe.
-Some incidental gigs with the bolero singer and guitarist Álvaro Velázquez. (Cuban romantic ballads.)
- . Private home concert project.
- Performance in the Skarpnäck church of Stockholm followed by a talk about La Palma, after an invitation of the church´s music director Miguel Robaina, former class mate and founding member of Kondorerna.
- Collaboration in a project of choral arrangements of boleros with piano, guitar and percussion accompaniment. Directed by Minerva M. Alonso Rodríguez and Ricardo Martín Fransisco Javier, the project was abandoned before a full repertoire had been constructed due to the heart attack of don Ricardo.
- Collaboration in 2016 for a documentary series about the Canary Islands for the Danish Tele3, directed by Frank Howitz, as well as collaboration with a FM radio station in La Laguna (Tenerife).
- Participation in the Open Piano project in Los Llanos de Aridane, Christmas 2023.