MEMORIES AND THE PAST
Almost all of the ambient music that I make is influenced in some shape or form by my own memories, or the past. Sometimes the music is influenced by someone else’s memory, or an event in history.

When the music is influenced by my own memories, the memories are of moments in my life, specific events, certain days that stand out to me, specific people or old friends, memories of strangers or people who I don’t know too well. I like to attach an ambient track, or album, to a certain memory, or era, and when I listen to that track or album, that memory, or a collection of memories, are brought back to me.

I also use field recordings quite a lot. These field recordings are like capturing a memory in a bottle. For a whole year from 2019 – 2020 I made short recordings each day, or whenever I felt I should be recording something. I would record parties, the ambience of airports, people talking in the distance, traffic, the sound of the wind moving through the trees, animals, a lighter being ignited, a door shutting, even the sound of a microwave beeping when the food had been zapped.  It sounds a bit weird but the idea of being able to record a moment in life and then listen back to it later is so pure to me. Some of these recordings appear throughout the music I make, some of them do not. The recordings that do appear in the music are just as important as the music itself, even if the recording lasts only a few seconds; I added them in for a reason.

IMAGES
I like to take pictures of everyday things and the people that are in my life. I use film but also my phone’s camera. Sometimes a certain photo will stand out to me and I’d get an urge to make music based around that photo. Images are really important to the music I make,  whether they’re my images or someone else’s. I adore the work of Gordon Parks, Mikiko Hara, Francesca Woodman, Eve Arnold, Carrie Mae, Shin Noguchi, Enrique Metinides, Rinko Kawauchi, Justine Kurland, the list would go on and on, but their work inspirers me greatly. I think images and their relation to music in general is a universal thing; writing and music also have a deep connection, but that’s a story for another time.

EMOTIONS AND COLOUR
I tie many emotions that I feel to sounds. I also tie sounds to colours. In ambient music, I try to connect a certain emotion that I feel to a specific melody, or atmosphere. Occasionally, I do this with a certain colour. I try to make the music sound red, or blue, or black, depending on what tone I’m going for. Most of the ambient music I make consists of looped melodies made by myself. I want these atmospheric loops to illustrate an emotion, a colour, a certain feeling. Sometimes these emotions I aim to describe are happy ones, sometimes they’re sad, or hopeful, or loving, or somewhere on the vast emotional spectrum. I try to do a good job of it. I’m not the best at certain aspects of music making, but I try to make the sound as good as I can. If I’m unable to capture these emotions and memories, images and colours, then I need to keep trying. All of these things are essential to the music.

Pathways
by Pallette
LP / Digital
11/27/2020

'Pathways' is a collection of four stunning loops created by the artist during an introspective period of his life. These majestic, consonant arrangements breathe slowly as fleetingly beautiful melodies; a gorgeous account of ebb and flow repetition. Pathways is cautiously sanguine and equally melancholic of which many today can personally and intimately relate to. A universal desperation and yearning for hope in a dispirited civilization.

Written, recorded and produced by Pallette
Additional production by Damien Duque
Design, layout and assemblage by zakè
Mastered at Schwebung Mastering (Germany) by Stephan Mathieu
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© Past Inside the Present
This is PITP-V031 | MMXX
PITP.bandcamp.com
pastinsidethepresent.com

Inspiration and thoughts behind the making of 'Six Postcards & Other Stories' by Carlos Ferreira

Modern Japanese Literature
In recent years I have been devoting myself to reading Modern Japanese Literature - Haruki Murakami, Yasunari Kawabata, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Yukio Mishima... just to name a few of my favorites. Although the approach of these authors is always very diverse, I find among all some elements that converge and dialogue with each other. I identify a lot with their conception of time present in the works. There seems to be a tendency to value the moment lived, “here-now”.
Also, the detailed description of nature, which is not only a background, but an active part of the narratives... they seem to me elements in common with approaches to ambient music, of using the environment as a trigger for experiences.

Andrei Tarkovsky's Landscapes
Tarkovsky is one of my favorite film directors for sure. The natural landscapes of his films seem to act as projections of an inner world - the filming in sequence / the extended time, the use of silence as an aesthetic resource to embrace the viewer, placing him actively in the center of the narrative... These are things that I try to explore in my music, in order to put the listener in a deep and emotional listening experience, offering a different sensorial space.

Cassette Culture
Let me note that I love cassettes! They have noises, crackling sounds, hiss, etc. They are reminders of what life is like – organic, finite, imperfect. From the beginning, the whole concept of “Six Postcards & Other Stories” was related to its physical format. As I tried to work with the idea of making 'sound postcards’, something that contained a very personal message and was also portable, cassettes are perfect for that. Therefore, many of the layers and textures of this album were obtained through tapes, as well as its mastering.

Six Postcards & Other Stories
by Carlos Ferreira
Cassette + Postcard Set // Digital
11/06/2020

“I am fascinated by the idea that time is not linear, and that it cannot be measured quantitatively. The intensity of each moment lived makes it unique. This makes me rethink my own existence as an individual, as well as my relationship with all the things that surround me. "Six Postcards & Other Stories" is a soundtrack for these thoughts. Each postcard represents a fragment, a memory of an indefinite time. They are soundscapes that aim to make the listener create their own images, acting as triggers for experiences.” - C.F.

Written, produced and mastered by Carlos Ferreira
Design, layout and assemblage by zakè
Postcards by Fernanda Ishida
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© Past Inside the Present
This is PITP-C015 | MMXX
PITP.bandcamp.com
pastinsidethepresent.com