Federico Aubele is an Argentine singer-songwriter who is now based in Brooklyn, New York. His music is a wonderful eclectic blend: it starts with a base of sensuous Argentine tango, mixed with layers of electronica, dub and jazz, topped off with beautiful lyrical songwriting. His latest album, '5', debuted at number 10 on the Latin iTunes Chart, and number 14 on the Electronic iTunes chart. Latin Times spoke with Aubele about his music, his travels and what it's like living in the US.
Aubele's music is a mixture of influences from throughout his life. The singer-songwriter was born in Buenos Aires and began playing guitar when he was 12, which is where his initial musical influence began. Since then, however, he has lived in Berlin, Barcelona and Brooklyn, and each one has had an effect on his music. When asked about this influence, he says "the influence of these cities is difficult to describe. It's very subconscious. It has to do with what the city provoke in you in the moment when you're there. Berlin can influence you in different ways, depending on what you're doing. I don't think it's something obvious like 'I'm in Berlin so Techno influences me.' It's much more subtle than that. Brooklyn has a variety and a mix of things and styles that is fascinating."
Like his upbringing, Aubele's music is both multi-musical and multi-lingual: he sings in both English and Spanish. "I grew up listening to lots of languages," he says. "English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German. Each language has its own particular sound that works in a particular context, and each language has elements for expressing different things."
Aubele's musical influences are as varied as the cities in which he has lived. Among his favorites are Baden Powell (everything from the 60s to the late 70s), Bill Frisell (especially from the 80s and 90s) and Astor Piazzolla. Aubele also sites Nick Cave, Massive Attack, Boards of Canada and the early work of Thievery Corp. In terms of musical genres that play an important role in his music, besides Argentinian boleros and tango, Aubele mentions 90s Hip Hop and Acid House from the 80s and 90s. Dub is something that has fascinated him since he was living in Buenos Aires. "My favorite is King Tubby. The idea of using those effects to work into a track seems obvious nowadays, but back then [in the 70s] that wasn't the case. It's an idea you can apply to any other genre of music, and that makes it even more valuable."
A combination of sounds has always interested the Argentine: "I always liked combining elements that at first would not seem like an obvious combination. When I started listening to electronic music, most of it was instrumental and the themes were also longer. I automatically thought, 'I could play guitar over this." That's how I would spend long hours improvising over electronic themes. One thing led to another. I felt comfortable in that combination."
Yet while he lets the cities he lives in and the music around him influence his work, when it comes to writing and composing, Aubele likes to work alone. "Like a painter," he says "by myself, in my atelier." While for a lot of people music is about collaboration and an inherent social interaction, for Aubele "it's an intimate process." This is something that he said "took time to understand and accept. We live in a world that tends to favor extraversion and the process of making music is the complete opposite. But I need to have that space in order to create peacefully."
Aubele's latest album is titles simply '5', and yes it is his fifth studio album. For Aubele, the greatest difference between this album and his previous four is that the various influences in his music are much more melded together, "to the point where it is difficult to recognize them." Aubele also says that the instrumental sections are more significant in this album. Aubele's favorite part about this album was seeing its evolution: "seeing how slowly, very sloly, the essential elements found their place...its a slow process, like a watchmaker."
The first single to be released from the album is Laberinto Del Ayer (Yesterday's Labyrinth), and is a collaboration with Aubele's wife, Natalia Clavier from the band Thievery Corp. Aubele said "it was inspired by the memory of a break up that I had many years ago that was very painful. It was a very decisive moment, and the night in which I left the apartment that I shared with my girlfriend, I felt like I was entering the most complete darkness." The song itself expresses this darkness, but there is also a passionate melancholy that is beautiful to listen to.
Aubele's music, is dark and atmospheric, it combines electronic beats with scattered bandoneon samples and nylon string guitar while featuring both male and female vocals. The result is something that is both acoustic and electronic, it is at once cinematic and intimate, subtle and orchestral.'5' is available on iTunes. Aubele will be touring through Canada and the US until November 6th and will be touring through Latin America in 2014. Find out more about the tour and listen to his music at federicoaubele.com
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
