– How did this collaboration between two musicians that on paper develop, if not antagonistic, at least different styles arise?

Max: Our first personal encounter was through Free Records, label where I edited my first CD Vestiges. When Bruno arrived to Spain they told him there was this crazy man who also made ‘special’ music for their label. We met and, personally, when I heard Bruno’s music and we talked about our passion for it, I knew we were soul mates. In the summer 2002 we made a trip to the south of Spain, to the supernatural and silent Natural Park of Cabo de Gata, in Almeria to be precise.

Bruno: We loved the place with its weird landscapes and all. We took pictures and audio samples of bugs and other curious things. Being marvelled with this place, we decided to create music that reflected how this place made us feel. The result was Indalo. It was an interesting fusion where we both moved away a little from our usual style, and that turned out to be a good thing, even nourishing!

– Listening to the song you include in MDEA vol. 8, under which lines did you decide to work together? Was there any previous planning or it came up improvising?

Max: There had been some improvising sessions and also an exchange of tracks that later on were treated and processed by each in his studio.

Bruno: Yes, both things have happened. I had never worked in this way. You brainstorm the ideas, like ‘splashing a canvas’, until, little by little, the work begins to shape up. When various ideas are presented we choose our next step. The truth is that you have a good time doing it and we enjoy the outcome. We like to think Indalo has elements from both of us

– Each of you are about t release new albums, in both of them you can clearly see an evolution in the sounds. Bruno’s music in Visualia is more and more luminous and environmental (except for the intro in part 5 that connects mysteriously and anthropologically with the Mexican Jorge Reyes or the American Steve Roach for example), while Max’s, in Nocturnal Emanations, deepens more in the cave like and earthly sounds. Lets just say that while Bruno is looking at the sky Max is looking at the depths of the planet and the thickest cosmos. I’d like you to comment, separately, on the motivations and changes in these new works, and insist on the fact of how you joined your strength in the same direction.

Max: I believe that these two works, Visualia and Nocturnal Emanations, are closer than between Bruno’s Suite Patagonia and my The Resonant Memory of Earth. Anyway, notice how in these two we talk about nature as the argumental base of the albums. In the new records, the approach is given by the use of the atmospheres and textures, we both bet closer to the ‘ambient’ concept. It is true that Bruno’s music has a ‘sacred’ component that invites us to look up to the sky –your appreciation seems accurate to me. And my music also tends to be cave like and earthly landscapes. But you should never forget there’s no earth without sky.

Bruno: I agree with Max. Besides, the album Indalo is our musical version of the volcanic atmosphere of Cape Gata and its strange beauty. It is also true that the colour of the sound changed but it is quite possible that every musician composes a work in relation to what he is living at that moment. It also lies in the huge ocean of its own memory. It seems to me that there’s nothing static, even less in our restless minds. As you can see, Max’s sound has evolved too. But anyway, there are artists who like to linger on known places.

– Bruno, Visualia is a very different to Suite Patagonia. The expansive character, almost movie-like, and the musical production of Suite Patagonia turns into a much more introspective record in Visualia, it’s less melodious and much more armonic with a minimalist character.

Bruno: It is pretty clear, basically, Suite Patagonia is more symphonic and poetical. On the other hand, in Viusalia I see the slow swirling ambience, it has other kind of depth. Let me see… I would say it’s an introspective CD, in a way I try to make the music awake those images that are hidden in our memory as if they were unconscious whispers. At least that’s from where I wrote it. But I still don’t know how people is going to react, it’s too new. The work may invite us to move to a timeless inner dimension, promoting the imagination and fantasy, I hope.

– There are great creations in Visualia, Visualia III for example. We are facing a visual, touchable and descriptive music. How do you develop that capacity to describe images, which are different for each listener, with music?

Bruno: Honestly, I’m really happy that you liked the album. Well, at least Visualia III looks like it. Thanks!

Each composition in the album is represented by an image by Janet Parke, an US artist that makes some drawings with very inspiring fractals. We sensed with Janet a very strong aesthetic bond between our works. But as you said, each listener makes his own visual trip. I don’t know how it happens. Of course, every artist is interested in the effect of their work, that his art provokes a certain emotional effect. Visualia contains interwoven pieces of a continual but almost imperceptible transformation. They appear, in different planes, countless sounds of organic texture that may create reminiscences of the earth and its inhabitants. I believe Visualia isn’t hard on the ears but I don’t believe it’s for listening it in the kitchen while you are making macaroons either.

-Max, you’ve always been labelled as the follower of advanced student of Steve Roach. Anyway, throughout your recordings you can clearly see your personal contributions to that sound that evolved form the American space to what it is today. From my point of view, your music is more lyric and organic than the one from the American master. They are very personal and hard to explain details but how would you explain your musical evolution from the arrogant Vestiges up to today?

Max: First of all, I’d like to thank the great American masters like Rich, Roach, etc because they showed to a whole new generation the way to the unexpected moment.

As regards my evolution, you can analyse it basically through two aspects. First, my personal, psychic growing as an individual evolution, and continual discovery of the surrounding world (trips, personal experiences, etc). I think this conditions me extraordinarily, and the growth and enrichment is translated into the music. Secondly, as son of the time I had to live in, technology pushes me to experiment and search for new roads and new frontiers to explore every day. I often have the feeling – I talk about this in Nocturnal Emanations script – that my music shifts as a live organism and, at this point, this evolution points to a greater abstraction, as if the elements of which it was made of at the beginning , as in Vestiges, were dissolving little by little, mixing and flowing really slowly, creating new structures and textures in an eternal mutation.

– Max, where would you say your music stands in a physical plane? In the cosmos, the depths of the earth, half way?

Max: In «Far Beyond the Immobile Point» I tried to recreate the poetical universe in which Umberto Eco situated his pendulum, in the remotest place of cosmos. Up to now that was my only incursion to ‘the space’. Now I stay half way. I’m interested in the earth as the scenery of my music. I have the constant need of escaping from the city and feel that surface. I prefer lonely places where the man doesn’t disturb the silence. Perhaps this is an echo from my early years which took place in a lonely farmhouse in Badajoz province. A place where time goes by slowly, where the view gets lost in the horizon and the word ‘space’ makes sense.

– You both are musicians that have always shown interest in the ethnic and tribal things. Bruno made that pretty clear in the master piece Suite Patagonia. And Max has always incorporated in his sounds chamanic percussion. Up to what point do you feel incorporated to the ethnical musical world?

Max: I’ve always felt an absolute fascination for the ancestral cultures and, of course, by its music. In Vestiges, as a declaration of principles, the first piece, Desolada, already presents those powerful ethnical percussion. I’m still investigating into that kind of music so as to enrich myself with all that wisdom and magic in involves. Now, I’m fascinated with the Bereber music. Recently, I was able to hear it live on a trip to Morocco. I was so impressed by it that I now have a fusion project with some of its elements. Due to the evolving process of evolution I was talking about earlier, that is the dissolution of the basic element that make up my music, also the percussion are more abstract every time. For example, the ones in Nocturnal Emanations are basically tribal grooves that have been conveniently treated so as to acquire a synthetic quality but keeping the root and ethnical character.

Bruno: I’m attracted by the idea of composing incorporating sounds of different cultures. I believe that the purity of its fragrance contributes with a strong emotional content. I also believe that part of its ‘visual’ things in my music has to do with that evoking to the sonorous origin of the man. I also use the timbric of the synthesiser trying to create an ocean of latent images. I’m convinced that the ‘sonoric psico-ambients’, so to name them, will be more developed in the future music.

– Is there something you would like to say apart from all the things I would have liked to ask but I didn’t have time to?

Max & Bruno: We just wanted to thank your interest in our music. Your questions have been interesting and pleasant to answer. I hope we can enjoy, for a long time, your prestigious magazine and its CDs.

Bert Strolenberg, www.sonicimmersion.org

«Nocturnal Emanations is the 4th album of the Spanish ambientcomposer Max Corbacho, which again is worth the long wait. It features typical quiet longform ambient-spacemusic divided in 8 tracks, in which transparent synthwashes slowly develop and desolve. A certain comparison to the current ambient excursions and light drone-textural worlds of his US collegue Steve Roach (again) can’t be denied, but next to that, Corbacho has arranged a beautiful backing with a vast aray of environmental sounds and fx’s, giving the musical painting an almost dense atmosphere. The slow flowing and morphing soundscapes, sometimes accompanied by distinct ambient percussion and sequencertreats (in which a slight high-tech component like Vir Unis is obvious), even gain effect when experienced in the evening or at night when using headphones. Stillness and introspectiveness all make up for over 73 highly atmospheric music, which seems to be the standard for such recordings since a few years.»

Max Corbacho started a solo career in the Ambient scene of the nineties. His amazing music soon attracted a remarkable attention. His albums are full of daring ideas.

 How and when did your interest in music and your vocation as a composer begin?

«I began to get interested in music since I was very young, but it was listening to old records by bands from the 1970’s when I felt the need to create. On the whole, all the artists in that era fascinated me, from the legendary Pink Floyd to the most metallic Led Zeppelyn of their first years. I started in Rock bands as a guitarist… till in the early 1990’s I abandoned everything so as to create electronic music.»

Which is the process you usually follow to create a musical piece?

«I don’t have a definite «method», yet I certainly have experienced an evolution. Nowadays I use the sequencer less than I used to, I intend my themes to become freer with respect to their rhythm and tempo. Right now I divide my time into creating acoustic loops from outdoor recordings and in the studio, and the creation of rhythmic computer-generated grooves, and I then coverall that with layers of synthesizers and it receives the final treatment.»

Do you consider yourself to be linked to a given musical label in particular? Do you feel or have you ever felt influenced by other musicians in your artistic task?

«Certainly, yet I rather feel I am related to a current, rather than to a given label. Obviously, the influence of such musicians as Vidna Obmana, Robert Rich or Steve Roach is undeniable in my work, and therefore I feel quite close to all the American ambient space scenery,as well as its European representation with such people as Alio Die, Mattias Grassow, Amir Baghiri, Temps Perdu, etc.»

Which are your sources for inspiration when composing?

«Basically my travels, outings and excursions to places where I feel myself far from civilization: I was born and spent the early years of my childhood in a small «cortijo», a typical country household, in the province of Badajoz, and later I spent every summer there during the following years. Somehow my subconscious always wants to return to that place, and I continuously look for places far away from noise to spend my free time, to photograph them and somehow capture threir atmosphere.»

Can you comment on what role Umberto Eco’s literature played in your album «Far Beyond The Immobile Point»? What did you want to express in this album?

«It was the first chapter what wholly captivated me. The poetic vision of the universe Eco describes,

and the vision of the pendulum the main character has, as he imagines how strings hold it stretching into infinity, up to a remote place the imagines as the «immobile point», the place where it is anchored, and around which the entire universe revolves, inspired me profoundly.»

What led you to compose «The Resonant Memory of Earth»? Did you propose to create a work related to Earth from the beginning?

«Yes, in «The Resonant…..» I finish some paths I started in «Vestiges», and plan it as an analysis of my feelings, my sensations at the moment of finding myself in some lost place in the midsrt of nature. Actually, it is a question I meditate on, wondering why many people like myself pick this call, poetically referred to as «the resonating memory of Earth·, whereas others never have this need in all of their lives. I also need to contribute somehow to making many people aware as they do not realise the harm they do to the natural environment.»

Tell us about your relationship with Bruno Sanfilippo. Are you planning to release an album together? What do you think of his musical style?

«Bruno and I are preparing a CD together, that’s right. We have connected very well at a personal level, and we have just had a vacation together with our respective wives in the south of Spain. We have the project of giving concerts jointly in the near future and it even is possible that we create our own label. With respect to his musical style, I believe there are several surprises in store for his fans, and some of the traits that were suggested in «Suite Patagonia», such as the taste for ambiences and atmospheric music, are going to get a thoroughly important role in his future works.»

Can you comment something about the projects you are working on and your plans for the immediate future?

«Yes, basically, I am currently working on two new projects , one being on a «techno-tribal» wave, based on rhythms generated via computer, and another maybe somewhat darker, without percussion and in a way following in the wake of «Far Beyond The Immobile Point». Also, there is my collaboration with Bruno Sanfilippo, as well as another two projects, one with Amir Baghiri and the other with Ran Kirlian, a young musician from Valencia who appears to be very promising indeed, having several surprises in store, in the near future.»

Chuck van Zyl, Host of «Star´s End

On Indalo (70’50»), Max Corbacho and Bruno Sanfilippo collaborate to produce a musical crosscurrent of directions and influences. This work tells of a shared spiritual imagination and of the steps each artist has taken toward enlightenment. Their detailed harmonic soundscapes portray the vast expanse of a timeless panorama. Travelers through this dark sonic landscape become part of the view – as are the composers, seen hovering around their musical themes. Elsewhere, lost within atonal washes, we peer into darkness. In these passages, the sustained ambiguity of this work converges with a profound stillness, and the strange rush of your own blood. Indalo is a ceremonial work based on the power of an inspirited place. Of all artforms, music has the unique ability to depict more than simply one moment frozen in space – and just as reality evolves over time, so does this album. It is a transportive listening experience and a fulfilling distraction to the psychological disquiet of the modern world.

  Reviewed by Sergio Vilar for Nucleus Magazine

In this opportunity, Nucleus, had the immense pleasure to talk with the Spanish musician Max Corbacho, one of the most interesting and innovative European artists signed up inside the Ambient / Space Rock. Let us know in this I dialogue the ideas, works and projects to a creator’s future whose work deserves to be discovered without more delay.

To begin Max you could give us an express summary of your career for people that doesn’t know you?

Of agreement. I began as so many other youths being interested in the big groups of the 70, and little by little I decided, together with some friends, to mount a band of Rock. My first instrument was the guitar, Spanish and electric. Later, quite later, by the middle of the 90, I began to be interested in the electronic music, especially for the North American scene. I bought a synthesizer and I was fascinated by their power. Starting from then one can say that my current musical stage begins.

Well, do let us speak of your influences who have been directly you the more ones in the musical plane?

In my new electronic stage, my biggest influences are Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach and Robert Rich. Previously they have influenced me mainly the big groups of the 70, mainly the Pink Floyd of the first stage… their videotape «Live at Pompeii» caused me a deep impression. I am also a great admirer of the old music, mainly centuries XVl, XVll and XVlll.

And what is inspired to the moment to compose?

The remote and lonely places, the night, and in general the big spaces. I believe that it could never compose an urban topic. The relationship that exists between my music and the natural means is indivisible. Continually I carry out exits and intent to get rich with the received sensations. I also use the natural means as an it orchestrates more, recording natural sounds and then processing them.

Starting from that elements go developing your music?

I try to look for new roads continually. Now I am experiencing with a form of totally free composition, sometimes aleatory, joining and mixing previously created and manipulated elements.

Which the concepts that contain your disks are?

Well, maybe «Vestiges» and «The Resonant Memory of Earth» shares the same concept. A North American reporter said once my music transported to a place that we all take inside, eternally swept by the wind. I keep that sensation. In «Far Beyond The Immobile Point», the concept was taken out of the first chapter of Umberto Echo’s novel, «The Pendulum of Foucault» whose imagination prolonged the rope that sustains the pendulum until the confines of the universe, in a place that he calls ·»the immobile point».

Since you made reference to your new disk, How sees «The Resonant Memory Of Earth» now, to little of having been published?

Musically, now, after some months, I reconcile with this work again.

When you finish a project you have listened to it thousands of times, and in this point loses the reference a little. I listened to it recently in my friend’s house Bruno Sanfilippo again it, and I feel satisfied of the carried out work. With this disk has wanted to finish some roads undertaken in «Vestiges».

Do I suppose that the visual aspect should play an important part to the moment to present your music on a scenario, not?

At the moment I have not begun with the concerts. It is a pending subject that for luck Bruno Sanfilippo and I are working, and we plan to share it to lean on mutually. Of course the visual aspect wants him to be primordial part of the show. We have several ideas that I wait we can materialize. The generation of images in real time, generated by software starting from the music, is one of my ideas. At the moment, we are collecting images of places visited to manipulate them and that they serve us as base.

Ambient, electronic, experimental… could you give us a definition of your music?

It is always difficult to label a work, sometimes in oneself disk different styles cohabit. but we all know that at the moment to define the style is fundamental in the current market. Basically, «Vestiges» and «The Resonant Memory of Earth» could be framed inside the panorama of the Space music, while «Far Beyond The Immobile Point» goes into in the field of the Ambient.

Going to another topic, How do you see to the current musical scene?

I believe that we attend an explosion of the electronic music of vanguard. They have never had so many unknown artists presenting disks continually. The musical computer science has revolutionized the artistic creation. I only wait that everything this offer belongs together with a great demand, that which I believe that to the long one he will come given by the incorporation of new markets, especially China and the countries of the East.

Previously, when we talked about your musical influences, you made reference to several really innovative creators inside the style. What do you say about the work of artists like Roedelius, Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana or Bruno Sanfilippo? What aspects do they approach you to them?

They are big creators, I believe that right now they move the market. It is so much their force that they go drawing the road continually, at least in the world of the ambient-space.

Bruno Sanfilippo it begins now a new stage, after its establishment in Barcelona. I admire their previous works a lot, in particular I admire their meticulousness, he is extremely a musician retailer. I believe that it will surprise their followers with an evolution of their music. We have a very narrow relationship at personal level, that which will help us a lot in our respective careers.

In that projects are working at the moment?

Well, in several at the same time. I prepare a CD with heaps of electro-tribal percussions, taking advantage of new technologies, that which I want that it serves as base in the future concerts. I also have several CD´s in completely environmental mind, without percussions. And now Bruno Sanfilippo and I will begin to exchange material for a future CD group.

Well Max, we would thank you some words for our I publish by way of closing.

Because to thank to all their interest, I wait that in little time it can present them new works and desire that the audition of my music contributes to the personal growth, and to the diffusion of aspects like the tolerance, the solidarity and the protection of the natural environment. A great greeting to all from Spain.