Breathing a Blend of Musical Genres and Sounds
Music rooted in nature, seasons, and the body
Breathing a Blend of Musical Genres and Sounds
Music rooted in nature, seasons, and the body
Alternative Sounds Born From a Mixture of Genres
Ba Ren Chi blends genres and sounds in the search for a coherent mixture, compelling crossing, the kind of bastardization that is almost as good in music as it is in food.
All its sounds are rooted in nature, the seasons, and the body, which means birth, growth, decay, and death. And all are filtered through musical understanding, sometimes formal, others improvisatory. With gratitude, celebration, and generosity of spirit as guiding principles.
About
“Ba Ren Chi” are the first three syllables of Valentino, my family name, as they might be Romanized if the name were written in Japanese. Think through that for a bit and you’ll get to an idea of the mixture that runs throughout all the music I make, along with a hint at some of the linguistic play that goes into the songs and their titles.
The first collection was a decade-long affair using different kinds of input and recording. The result was and is, well, mixed. Unfortunately, to go back to some of those original pieces, I would basically need to re-write them from scratch, as computers have died, software and file types are no longer readable, and things get lost when you move.
Since Ba Ren Chi’s second album, however, I’ve been more consistent, so the levels and instruments tend to match up from one piece to the next and from one album to the next. Everything starts with the score, or rather in my head, and then with the score.
Playback is a matter of trial and error, revision, more revision, and then mastering, sometimes followed by revision and remastering. And maybe a little more revision. And remastering.
My background is as a drummer, percussionist, and vocalist.