Memoirs of a Damned (26)

The composer years (19)

Napolitan mandolin by Gabrielle Pandini luthier

Works revision: Deluxe Editions

Lacking muses, I dedicated the following years to reissuing the first three albums,

which had suffered the most from the weight of time.

The Deluxe editions were not only a technical improvement in mastering. For years,

I dabbled in organology, and my pension allowed me the pleasure of acquiring instruments. Some more professional than others, but all in that range. The mandolins by the Ferrara luthier Gabriele Pandini, the viola-sitar by the Jerez-born Cosano, the double flute of a Navajo Indian, and the pochette by the Cantabrian García Oliva are just a few of my collection.

I taught myself all of them, including some alongside digital. Analog and digital were embracing each other for the first time. The result still met the standards of the independent artist.

Coinciding with this, and in my obsessive perfectionism, I enrolled in Berklee University in a course led by none other than Marc Dieter Einstein, who had been the sound engineer for artists such as Annie Lennox, U2, and Depeche Mode.

Obviously, my goal wasn't to convert to that complex and inaccessible world, but rather, within my own means, to improve the quality of my work.As I've already mentioned, no teacher is to blame for the results I achieved, and this applies to everyone I met.

The language barrier, for the second time, prevented me from acquiring much more knowledge and benefiting from the course.

I used my money to improve my home studio with mastering software and sound equipment.

At the same time, I enrolled in Contemporary Music, with the equally prestigious composer Gabriele Vanoni. Unfortunately, it was a subject I had already studied at UNIR, and I decided not to take module two. Furthermore, the paths of so-called contemporary music didn't interest me much.I was always reluctant to experiment outside the logic and the usual use of the purpose for which an instrument was made. Still, he opened my mind in that sense, and that's what I'm sticking with.