A LIVE SET OF SLO-MO ELECTRONICA AND MELODIC BEATS DIRECT FROM MONTREAL.

Montreal based producer Gabriel Vinuela, AKA viñu-vinu, delivers a live Ableton performance of gorgeous electronic music for lazy headphone dreaming.………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Firstly, could you tell us a bit about your journey and evolution into electronic music/production, and where during that journey that your love for ambient and experimental came about?

I started exploring electronics first in the context of my band, a modern jazz trio called Parc X trio and also with my other ensemble called Extended Family. I was messing with effect pedals and trying to get different textures out of them with my synths or my Nord keyboard. My friend Alex Lefaivre - co-leader and bass player in Parc X trio - told me about Ableton and that it was a great tool to create music, electronics, beats etc. So, I bought it and started exploring with sounds, mixing, watching a bunch of tutorials and basically teaching myself. I also started to record a lot of my own sounds and field recordings.

I’m always on the lookout for new music of any genre, so I guess my love for ambient/experimental comes mostly from my curiosity. And I also have a tendency to like slow tempo, melancholic and cinematic sounding stuff.

Are you formally trained in music?

Yes, I’ve been playing piano since I was 10 years old. I did an undergrad diploma in Classical Piano Performance and another undergrad in Jazz Performance, both at Université de Montréal.

How did you decide to approach your mix?

I gathered a lot of music into an Ableton session; some of my influences, some Montreal local acts, some friends and some of my own productions. This pool of songs were divided in two categories: ambient and beats. Next to those I had two empty tracks, Deck A and Deck B, where I could drop the selected song in a clip slot and mix between the two decks. I mixed and recorded everything live and in the moment (except for one little edit), as I would have done at a show or in my living room for a chill night listening to music. I filmed everything too while doing it! I hope you enjoy the ride.

You’ve included some of your own productions in there too?

Yes, I’ve included seven of my own productions. Most of them are from my latest album Echoes from Afar, one is from my previous EP Encounters and there’s one exclusive unreleased track in there too. A goodie just for you guys!

Which artists inspire you in the ambient/downbeat/electronica realm?

A lot are featured in this mix. Four Tet, Shigeto, Bonobo, Lapalux. Also, Hainbach, Daedelus, Jon Hopkins and a lot of my friends both in Montreal and in the virtual world.

What’s your time favourite ambient/downbeat/electronica/experimental track, LP or mix compilation?

This so hard! But I seem to always come back to Shigeto’s album Lineage. So it’s that today…it might change tomorrow!

Do you plan to officially release any of your productions?

Yes for sure! I already have three EPs out: Echoes from Afar (Mystery Circles, 2018), Encounters (Mystery Circles, 2017) and Etudes-Tableaux (2016). I also have a new album coming out in June this year on Seil Records called Borderless, this time made as a duo with a great Chilean producer/composer, Nico Rosenberg. It’s an ambient album of piano improvisations, generative modular synths and MaxMsp processing, all captured and shaped on tape cassette.

You can checkout the tracklist for Gabriel’s mix over at SoundCloud.

What else is coming up for you this year? Any live shows?

 I’m actually at a creative residency right now at the Centre d’Expérimentation Musicale in Chicoutimi (Québec). I’m here for two weeks, working with a group of musicians; recording, sampling, finishing a batch of new songs and rehearsing them with the ensemble. We are performing a show this Saturday March 23rd in Chicoutimi. It will be a hybrid of my electronic music with an acoustic live ensemble and live video projections. I’m also performing my Echoes from Afar live set for the Canadian Music Week festival in May in Toronto. I’m sure I’ll have more shows coming in also, but in the mean time I’ll be working on some new music for my first LP for the rest of 2019.