"Francisco" - Track 2 of 3 for the EP, Francisco, a small dedication to my dad who passed away August 31st 2020.

This one was quite the adventure of a collaboration. This tune has four amazing special guests who really put some amazing amounts of time into it.

Special guests:
- Leticia Villalta (voice, interview excerpts)
- Alejandra Oyarce (voice)
- Astrid Mendez (voice)
- Anna Villalta ( story provider)

Mastered by Steve Vertigan from Soggy Recording Dog Studio

Astrid's voice recorded by Jarrod Pickford.

Instruments played by Marcos Villalta. The instrumentation includes:
- keyboard (electric keyboard and acoustic piano sounds)
- percussion(vase, wooden frog, cymbals, bits of drum kit)
- nylon acoustic guitar

AUDIO DOWNLOAD: marcosvillalta.bandcamp.com

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About the collaborators' roles:

I interviewed my mum Leticia with questions on my dad, then used excerpts for this recording. Her relationship with him was of course very unique, so it's beautiful to have her talk about it for this tune. She also has a very cool voice.

My dad's sister who is living in El Salvador, Anna Villalta, amazingly provided quite a few different stories about the younger Francisco. It was very cool as none of his siblings live here in Australia so I haven't had the chance to hear many stories. Her contribution went onto the next two collaborators who got creative with what she sent. A big warm thanks for her too.

Friends and previous housemates, Alejandra(Ale) Oyarce and Astrid Mendez, put amazing work into using those stories for the recording. There's a lot of very creative word play, and role playing (it's in Spanish). I composed two big rhythmic sections for them to write words to, then perform. With great skills and background in theatre(as well as other forms of artistic expression) they really brought it to life. Big thanks to these two! So much work. Astrid is an incredibly skilled multidisciplinary artist, and you can check out her stuff here at astridmendez.com . You can also check out one of her puppetry projects at thepilgrimscabinet.com . Ale, another incredibly skilled performer, acts, dances and has a youtube channel which you can see here at: www.youtube.com/channel/UCv1D... . Do yourself a favour, check out both of their stuff, and share it to the world for other people to enjoy!

Thanks to Steve Vertigan for beautifully mastering this track and the others of course. We had a few extensive conversations on mastering, a topic in which I know nothing about, and it was awesome to be informed as well as getting mastered tracks. Check out some of his stuff at: www.soggydogrecording.com.au

Thanks to Jarrod Pickford for recording Astrid's vocals. She was already ou oƒ Melbourne at that time. He was a real life saver, and they sound amazing.
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Track Influences

There's definitely a lot of different sounds that I am grateful to draw from, either through a process of learning or through imitation without the knowledge. Without knowing the best practice for respecting musical lineage and knowing the different cultural boundaries that might be expected, here listed are potential traceable influences for this track, so you can explore where they come from and also give these artists/ styles some more listening time. Examples of music and musicians where influence may be heard for this tune are:

- Kaushiki Chakrabourty - Bagshree
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9tM2...

- Shakti - Get Down And Shruti
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG7kH...

- Shakti - Face to Face
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzzkN...

- Zia Mohuihhin Dagar - Raag Yaaman
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5trN...

- Chick Corea and Return To Forever - 500 Miles High
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD21F...

- Hermeto Pascoal - Santo Antonio
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_EhF...

- Hermeto Pascoal - Rede
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtvEv...